


strawberry stracciatella

by herasarchives



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Compliant, Crack, Domestic, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, Friends to Lovers, Idiots in Love, M/M, Minor Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru, Mutual Pining, Post-Time Skip, implied iwaoi, matsuhana sisters for the win, they're so dumb PLEASE
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:00:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 21,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27856369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/herasarchives/pseuds/herasarchives
Summary: "How much did you drink?""Three," Hanamaki answered, raising four fingers.Matsukawa didn't want to know three of what.
Relationships: Hanamaki Takahiro/Matsukawa Issei
Comments: 13
Kudos: 52





	1. apartment 23a

**Author's Note:**

> head's up for some possible triggers/content warnings for this chapter
> 
> alcohol  
> one (1) implied mention of throwing up  
> like one sex joke  
> issei's morbid funeral home employee humour

Matsukawa Issei is quite enjoying his life at the moment.

He has a job and even though it isn't the best option in the world, it's secure and paid well; he managed to get himself a pretty apartment in Sendai, and it seems like he doesn't need anything more. After he gets home from his job, depending on his mood, he's either going to go and explore the city, or stay inside clicking through the infinite channels of his TV. If he doesn't find anything interesting, he'll unmute the group chat, now named **‘the name doesn't matter'** , the current topic being to no one's surprise, the group chat's name.

**oikawa 17:27**

iwa-chan! change the name back now!

**iwaizumi 17:27**

No. I'm not letting this group chat be called 'ménage à quatre'.

**me 17:27**

wtf oikawa

**oikawa 17:28**

IT WASNT ME WHO SET THAT NAME I JUST WOKE UP

**iwaizumi 17:28**

who else was it then?

**oikawa 17:28**

MAKKI

**me 17:28**

i wouldnt be surprised actually

**hanamaki 17:28**

whats wrong about 'ménage à quatre'

**iwaizumi 17:28**

That unlike you, I have a professional job that includes meeting people and I would rather not explain why I'm in a group chat that holds the name of the fancy word for 'foursome'.

**oikawa 17:28**

that unlike you i have a p̶r̶o̶f̶e̶s̶s̶i̶o̶n̶a̶l̶ job t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶i̶n̶c̶l̶u̶d̶e̶s̶ ̶m̶e̶e̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶p̶e̶o̶p̶l̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶i̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶r̶a̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ e̶x̶p̶l̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶w̶h̶y̶ ̶i̶'̶m̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶a̶ ̶g̶r̶o̶u̶p̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶h̶o̶l̶d̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶n̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶a̶n̶c̶y̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶d̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶'̶f̶o̶u̶r̶s̶o̶m̶e̶'̶

**hanamaki 17:29**

i- i literally have a job like all of you

Matsukawa snickers at the convo before typing out the response.

**me 17:29**

well not like all of us, but yeah you have a point

**hanamaki 17:29**

ur literally a grim reaper, but go off i guess

**oikawa 17:29**

ˆ

**me 17:29**

sORrY weRe NoT aLL pRO VoLLeYbaLL pLAyErS, aLL MiGHty OiKAwA tORU

**iwaizumi 17:29**

My eyes hurt from reading that.

**oikawa 17:30**

anyways look at the beautiful sunrise pictures i took

Matsukawa is currently interested in anything but Oikawa's sunrise pictures, that all looked the same to him anyway, leading him to mute the group chat again and discarding his phone on the couch.

He doesn't mind that everything was a routine; that's just how it is, and in many cases, there would be a tiny detail that would make that day different from any other. He found himself enjoying those small daily changes so much that he started to write them down into his desk calendar, one thing for each day. He didn't care if it was something positive or negative, a tiny detail or something huge, whatever made that day special was written down. After some time it actually had a psychological effect on him, he wouldn't feel content that day until he found the change.

So of course, today is absolutely nerve-wrecking for him.

The clock says 23:38 and he still has no clue.

Everything went exactly as usual today. He woke up on time, had his usual breakfast, work was pretty average too, the only interesting thing on the TV was a cooking show but he didn't have all the ingredients necessary for the recipe, the group chat was unnervingly quiet today, and he has less than half an hour left.

 _Did I run out of options?_ he asks himself.

No. Not really.

If he wanted to, he could do a whole list of things in 20 minutes, but that wasn't what Matsukawa is after. He views the daily differences as an independent variable, something that was supposed to happen because destiny said so, something like getting on the wrong train or having to buy an apple because the store was out of peaches, not learning a Zumba routine in the middle of a Friday night.

He buries his face in his hands and realizes that his little routine might break until he hears the doorbell ring.

Matsukawa looks at the clock again.

23:41

_What the fuck?_

He decides to wait for the doorbell to ring again, since the thought of someone outside of his apartment at this ungodly hour seems so absurd, that he thinks he's imagining it.

To his absolute surprise, the doorbell rings again.

Matsukawa's brain becomes so scrambled from the current situation that it takes him a good 15 seconds for the questions to start whirling through his mind.

_Why is someone at my door at almost midnight? I'm not expecting visitors? Are they at the right apartment? How did they even get inside the building without the main entrance card? Who would just let a stranger in? Is it the executioner?_

He reaches for the butcher knife but decides to leave it alone as he heads towards the door.

 _It can just be a mistake,_ one of his thoughts says.

 _Or a fucking murderer,_ adds a different one.

He curses himself internally for not having installed a peephole and presses his ear towards the door.

Matsukawa almost screams when the person on the other side of the door starts knocking like a lunatic, practically banging against the door.

"I know you're home, let me innnnn"

Matsukawa would recognize that voice from one syllable.

"Makki?" he swings the door open and his eyes fall on the figure in his doorway.

"Yeah," Hanamaki chuckles. "That would be me."

Matsukawa notices that something was off, but with Hanamaki's personality, it was often difficult to tell if he was being serious or not.

"What are you doing here?" he asks. "It's almost midnight!"

"Well I did kinda lose my job again, and with that went my apartment," Hanamaki confesses. "I don't really have a place to go so I thought I could crash at yours for the night? Ya know? Don't worry I'll be good company. You won't even know I'm here."

Hanamaki pauses, his index finger now repeatedly poking Matsukawa's shoulder.

"Unless you want me to make my presence known."

 _Oh,_ Matsukawa puts two and two together. _He's drunk._

"How much did you drink?"

"Three," Hanamaki answers, raising four fingers.

Matsukawa doesn't want to know three of what.

"How did you get in here without the main card?"

"I stood by the main entrance for like fifteen minutes until someone let me in."

"Just like that?"

"I mean they asked if I was looking for someone, so I said you, and they let me in and told me I'll find you at the 23rd floor."

_So much for apartment security,_ Matsukawa thinks.

"Do you need anything?" he asks as he lets him inside.

Hanamaki stumbles around the apartment before stopping in front of a mirror.

"Oh, I look pretty," he notes.

"Yeah, yeah, you do, come on, sleepy time," Matsukawa drags him to the living room.

"Did you just call me pretty, Matsukawa?"

"Yeah, and?" Matsukawa looks up from the sink. "You're going to do something about it?"

Matsukawa knows how Hanamaki was when drunk. He would talk twice the usual amount, laugh at his own terrible jokes, and had the craziest ideas but never went through with them.

It took him a long time to sober up and he would most often feel ill after. He also wouldn't remember anything the next morning, which enabled people around him to speak without a filter, meaning Matsukawa could totally spill his heart out to him if he wanted to, and he would have no idea tomorrow.

"Watch your mouth, or I just might do something I'll regret," Hanamaki says from the couch.

"What are you going to do?" Matsukawa asks, handing him the glass of water. "Kiss me?"

"I just might."

Matsukawa flicks his forehead.

"Kiss me when you're sober. That way you'll remember it."

Hanamaki groans.

"Stay here," Matsukawa points at the couch. "I'm going to get you some clothes. You're not sleeping in that."

Matsukawa turns around to walk into his bedroom, hoping Hanamaki would listen to his words. He grabs the first t-shirt and sweatpants he finds and heads back to the living room. To his surprise, Hanamaki remained in the position he left him in, now staring off to the distance.

"Oi," Matsukawa calls out, handing him the clothes.

Not saying a word, he accepts them and hands him the empty cup. Matsukawa walks back to the sink to refill, the only sound echoing through the apartment was the sound of running water.

 _Something has him buried in his thoughts,_ Matsukawa notes. _He's never this quiet._

"Something on your mind?" he decides to break the silence.

"Why am I like this?" Hanamaki asks as he places the shirt over his head. "I can't keep a job for than five months, is it something about me, or is it just something external that I can't control? I mean I'm-, I try not to slack, I do the best I can, and they always find someone who fits the position more than me, why?"

Matsukawa places the glass on the table and looks at his friend, worry and sadness glowing from his eyes.

"Listen," Matsukawa crouches down in order not to tower over Hanamaki. "You should sleep it through, okay? We can talk about this in the morning, when your head..." he presses his finger against Hanamaki's forehead, "...is thinking the way it should be."

Hanamaki smiles faintly at the action.

"You're overthinking everything right now," Matsukawa adds. "Sleep."

"Will you read me a bedtime story?" Hanamaki asks as he lies down on the couch.

"No," Matsukawa replies as he returns to the kitchen, shuffling through one of the drawers.

Hanamaki pouts.

"Not even a forehead kiss?" he asks. "Like mothers give to their children?"

"I'm not your mother," Matsukawa scoffs with a smile.

"You do act like one," Hanamaki mumbles.

"Here," Matsukawa places a bucket at the foot of the couch. "Just in case."

"Can you lower the temperature?" Hanamaki looks up at him, blanket barely pulled over him. "I'm burning."

"Sure," Matsukawa replies walking over to the thermostat and adjusting it. "Anything else?"

"Nuh."

He looks at Hanamaki and realizes that having him lay on his back was not a good idea.

"Side," he simply says, reaching to turn him over.

"Why?" Hanamaki whines, too weak and scrambled to push himself away.

"Do you want to suffocate if you get sick in the middle of the night?" Matsukawa asks. "I don't want to wake up to a corpse in my apartment."

"At least I'd know I'd have the prettiest casket."

"Idiot."

Hanamaki finally obliges, resting himself on his side, arm hanging off the couch.

"If you'll need more water, the sink's right here and the bathroom is in the hallway opposite to the closet," Matsukawa adds.

"Got it," Hanamaki replies in an almost whisper.

"Good night," Matsukawa says and was about to turn around the corner when Hanamaki speaks again.

" _Issei,_ " he calls out.

The mention of his first name makes Matsukawa's brain crash for a second.

"...thank you," he adds.

"Anytime," Matsukawa replies before heading to sleep.

\-------------------

If Matsukawa Issei thought he would be getting any sleep that night, he was dead wrong.

From the moment he laid down until now, around five and a half hours later, he was lying wide awake, staring at nothing.

He was thrashing around in his bed, re-arranging pillows in blankets to make himself the most comfortable. He thought of getting something from the kitchen to chase off his insomnia, but he didn't want to risk waking Hanamaki up.

Why was he keeping him awake?

It could have been the fact that from all the things he thought could happen during those last 20 minutes of the previous night, a hammered Hanamaki showing up at his doorstep seeking shelter wouldn't even have been on the list. 

Hanamaki himself wasn't the problem, but this was the first time Matsukawa saw him in real life for the first time in three months, or maybe even more.

He finally thought that he had gotten rid of his high-school crush, but when he saw him standing on his doorstep, all the feelings came flooding back like a Tsunami.

He was confused, super confused about his feelings, was it even healthy to be in love with the same person for eight excruciating years? What was making him hold on so desperately, even though he didn't even believe in getting his feelings returned anymore?

God, he was stressing for nothing.

He gets out of the bed and softly walks over to the balcony window, the breaking dawn starting to paint the sky. He pushes it open a little, letting the morning breeze fill the room.

But not even the fresh air can clear his head.

He throws himself back on the bed and stares into the ceiling, thoughts of everything dashing through his mind.

That was until he hears the steps that didn't belong to him.

He jumps onto his feet as if he was struck by lightning and as he opens the door to the hallway, where he can only hear the door to the bathroom opening with a slam and the light being turned on. Matsukawa practically bolts through his apartment, realizing that the sounds were signalling what he feared. When he reaches the bathroom, Hanamaki was already on his knees next to the toilet, letting out the regrets of yesterday down the drain.

"For heaven's sake," Matsukawa murmurs.

He grabs the first cup he sees, immediately filling it up with cold water, placing it next to him as he crouches down next to Hanamaki.

"That's all?" he asks, one hand on his back to support his weight.

"Yeah," Hanamaki breathes out.

"Rinse," he hands him the cup of water.

"Fuck," Hanamaki murmurs, rubbing his eye with one hand, the other shakily holding the empty cup.

"Better?" Matsukawa asks, eyes not leaving his form.

"Yeah," he nods. "What time is it?"

"A one you shouldn't be awake at," Matsukawa replies. "Come on, up."

He helps him stand up, one hand still holding him for support, using the other one to flush.

"Well, that was exhilarating." Hanamaki sighs.

"Don't waste your energy on pointless words," he replies to his comment, motioning for him to get out of the bathroom.

For the actions that took place just a few moments ago, Hanamaki manages to keep his balance quite well, but not even that makes Matsukawa remove his hand from his back. He guides him back to the sofa and walks to the sink to get more water.

"I gave you the bucket for a reason," Matsukawa mumbles through the light sounds of the water.

"I forgot."

"I've noticed."

Hanamaki lets out a small chuckle, before turning around to face the window, the sun now visible as it breaks through the sky, the small slips of the gold rays shining into the apartment through the tiny spaces between the blinds, casting a striped pattern onto the floor.

"Here, drink," Matsukawa breaks his concentration as he hands him another cup of water.

"I just drank a minute ago," Hanamaki pushes his hand away.

"Drink," Matsukawa repeats.

Hanamaki obliges, emptying the cup before placing it back on the table. Looking up he notices Matsukawa resting in the opposing armchair, his focus now also on the rising sun.

The angle at which Matsukawa is facing him gives Hanamaki a perfect view on his side profile, his eyes immediately landing onto the black jewellery decorating his ear.

"When did that happen?" Hanamaki asks, drawing circles in the air around his ear.

Matsukawa turns to face him and quickly understands what Hanamaki means with the motion.

"Don’t know, to be honest," Matsukawa responds, tracing the hoops and studs with his finger. "Every once in a while, I get a feeling that there's time for something new and it usually ends up with one of these."

Hanamaki leans a little to the left to look at the second half of Matsukawa's face, raising an eyebrow when he didn't see anything.

"Oh, there's nothing on the other side, yet," Matsukawa answers his unasked question. "It's a way harder angle to hit since I'm right-handed."

"Wait, you did all those by yourself?" Hanamaki almost falls from the couch.

"Wait, you thought I'd pay an unholy amount of money for something I can do at home for a fifth of the price?" Matsukawa gives him a look.

"You're crazy," Hanamaki leans back. "Please tell me you at least disinfect the needle beforehand. If you're not using safety pins of course."

"Do you really think so low of me?" Matsukawa stands up from the seat and walks over to the kitchen compartments. "I'm not a professional but I'm not a fourteen-year-old either."

He opens the uppermost cabinet and takes out a medium-sized black leather box. Walking back to the living room, he opens the box and places it on the table in front of Hanamaki. The black box divides into two main sides; the left side contains needles ranging between 20 and 14 gauge, each type stored in a separate section. The right side is filled with earrings of various types and colours all mixed together in a large bundle.

"Not a professional," Hanamaki snorts. "You could start a studio with this."

"Just because I know how to push a needle through someone's ear doesn't mean I'm certified to do it," Matsukawa closes the box. "I'd need a certificate to get a job in a studio, let alone start a studio. And that's a long-ass process I'm not interested in."

Hanamaki snorts again.

"Also," Matsukawa continues as he sits back into the armchair. "Since we're at the topic of jobs, do you wanna talk about your whole ordeal?"

Hanamaki's face instantly goes back to serious.

"What's there to discuss?" he looks at the floor.

"I don't know," Matsukawa shrugs. "I know there's something bothering you, and talking about it can help."

"It's the same old story. I just lost another job. Nothing special."

"Did they tell you why they're letting you go?"

"Just the usual 'we found someone who fits this position better than you do' bullshit. Just tell me you don't want me there and I'll leave."

"Don't beat yourself up because of it. Maybe the job just wasn't for you."

"Like all the others?"

Matsukawa sighs.

"Look, one day, you'll find a job that you'll truly enjoy. A one that won't let you go just because. I know it."

"But when?"

"Be patient. Good things come with time."

"You sound like a monk."

Matsukawa snickers.

"Also, are you sure it's okay that I stay here for the while?" Hanamaki asks.

"Of course," Matsukawa reassures him. "You can stay over for as long as you need."

"Thanks."

"Anytime."

"Also, can we stop tomorrow at my old apartment to pick up my stuff?"

"Well, tomorrow's today already, but sure."

Hanamaki nods as a thank you.

"About your car, I have two parking lots, but they're both occupied," Matsukawa points out. "Although I could move the-"

"Do I look like someone who owns a car?" Hanamaki interrupts.

"I guess? Are there like criterions people have to match in order to look like they own a car?"

"Okay, another way, do I look like someone with a driving license?"

"Wait, you're not telling me you-"

"I absolutely did."

"How?" Matsukawa bursts into laughter. "How does someone fail the test six times?"

"I don't know!" Hanamaki exclaims. "It's not the signs and regulations, I know that by heart, it's the driving part that always ends up in a bad way."

"I really don't know if I should laugh or cry, because that's just tragic," Matsukawa snorts. "How do you even get around?

"Bus, tram. taxi," Hanamaki starts to list. "You can always walk as well."

Matsukawa shakes his head.

"Yeah, we'll get it everything done, don't worry," he sighs. "Let's just sleep a little more."

"Yeah man, you look like shit," Hanamaki notes. "How much sleep did you get?"

"Altogether? A solid eight."

"Hours?"

"Minutes."

Hanamaki deadpans.

"What?" Matsukawa shrugs. "You out of all people know that I need minimum sleep to survive."

"Please, go get some sleep."

"Bold of you to assume I'll be able to sleep after this entire circus."

"Wait, did I keep you up?"

Matsukawa shakes his hand in a so-so motion.

"I would be lying if I said no, but you're not the only reason."

"Overthinking, anxiety, general insomnia..." Hanamaki starts to list.

"You want me to pick one, or to order them on an intensity scale?"

"Seriously?"

"Insomnia, I guess."

"That didn't sound very honest."

"Are you my psychiatrist?"

"Do you want me to be?"

"God no," Matsukawa shakes his head. "Take that off your job list."

"It was never there," Hanamaki replies. "I'd need a degree for that."

"True," Matsukawa yawns and leans his head against the armchair, eyes fluttering every few seconds.

Hanamaki goes on to ramble about universities for three or four minutes, but after getting no response from the latter, he turns to him once again.

The light snores should have given away his current state, and Hanamaki only sighs, knowing that once Matsukawa falls asleep, not even an atomic explosion could wake him up, and with that decides to get some more sleep as well.

\-------------------

As Matsukawa is nearly impossible to wake up, Hanamaki, on the other hand, is woken by a pin drop.

So, the roar of a coffee machine could probably bring him back from the afterlife.

Hanamaki groans as he sits up, immediately looking at the demonic coffee machine, Matsukawa standing right next to it.

"Energy boost?" he asks.

Matsukawa answers by clicking his tongue and takes the cup away. Hanamaki is about to give him a good morning but as he turns around, he notices a red bull in Matsukawa's other hand.

"Matsukawa, don't," he says softly

Ignoring his words, Matsukawa pours both liquids into the mug and looks directly at him as he drinks the mix in one take.

In the meantime, Hanamaki has grabbed his phone and put 119 on speed dial, expecting Matsukawa to collapse any moment from the amount of energy he just poured into himself.

Five, ten, fifteen seconds pass and seeing that Matsukawa is still standing on his own two feet, Hanamaki lays the phone down.

"You're crazy," Hanamaki notes.

"Like it's the first time I've done that."

Hanamaki shakes his head at the answer and stretches, not noticing how Matsukawa watches the show a little more intensely than he should.

"Do you want fresh clothes or are you okay with what you have now?" he suddenly asks.

"I'm good like this, don't worry," Hanamaki brushes his concern off. "Let's get my stuff and I'll take a shower and everything later."

Matsukawa nods and goes to get his jacket, Hanamaki catching up with him as he's putting on his shoes. He quickly fixes his hair in the mirror and slides past Matsukawa to dress as well.

"Well aren't you hyper today," Matsukawa points out.

"Oh boy, I'm feeling new as ever."

Hanamaki's words don't really feel true as they almost fall asleep going down the elevator, Hanamaki tired more mentally than physically, Matsukawa just waiting for the energy to kick in. The ding of the elevator bell brings them both back into the real world, and Hanamaki lets Matsukawa exit first and follows him into the apartment parking spaces. He takes out the keys and unlocks the car, but Hanamaki's gaze locks onto a different vehicle.

"That's a lucky neighbour you got here," Hanamaki states, motioning toward the billiard blue motorcycle parked right next to Matsukawa's car.

"Neighbour," Matsukawa snorts and fishes out a second pair of keys from his pocket. "That's mine."

"Seriously?" Hanamaki whines.

Matsukawa nods, and Hanamaki keeps staring at him, blinking in disbelief.

"Are you surprised?" Matsukawa smirks. "My sister's motorcycle frenzy was like a wildfire. First, she passes it onto your sister, then it got to it onto me, and now I'm pretty sure that Saito's got one too."

"And then there's me," Hanamaki sighs.

Matsukawa smirks at his remark and motions him to get into the car.

The drive there wasn't anything extra, the fifteen-minute trip roughly consisted of Hanamaki's broken GPS skills and the low voice of the radio that Matsukawa pumped up if a good song came on.

They arrive, but before Hanamaki can step out, Matsukawa catches him by his arm.

"Are you sure it's okay if I go in there with you?" he asks.

"Yeah, why would it be a problem?" Hanamaki answers, dumbstruck by the question.

"I dunno, maybe a bad landowner?"

"Ah, don't worry," Hanamaki ensures him. "The lady in charge of this building is like _super_ nice. She literally told me she feels bad for having to kick me out. But rules are rules, ya know?"

"Oh, okay then," Matsukawa nods and the two exit the car.

Hanamaki takes out his keys and lets him and Matsukawa into the apartment building, and they're immediately greeted by the manager Hanamaki previously mentioned.

"Hanamaki-san, are you here to pick up your belongings?" she asks.

"Yes," Hanamaki nods. "I brought a friend to help me with it, is that okay?"

"Of course," she answers and leads them towards the elevator. "I prepared some moving boxes for you, they should be in the apartment. If you'll need more, just let me know."

"Got it," he answers and presses the button to the third floor.

\-------------------

"Why do you have two of the same colour?" Matsukawa asks as he's packing Hanamaki's bathroom.

Hanamaki turns around and looks at the two nail polish bottles that he's holding.

"That's a 402 in your left hand, and a 412 in your right," he explains. "Two _very_ distinctive shades."

Matsukawa compares the two bottles again but sees no difference.

"Whatever," he murmurs and puts the objects into the box.

He turns to the side and looks at the latter, the two making eye contact for a few seconds before Hanamaki sends a small smile his way and Matsukawa turns back to packing. He's about to reach for a box that sits one of the top shelves, but Hanamaki out speeds him and takes down the box before he can.

"I'll handle these," he says and takes them to the living room.

"What's in there?" Matsukawa teases. "Something of your special-"

"Get your mind out of the gutter," Hanamaki opens the box to reveal its contents, nothing more than a vast collection of bath bombs. "They're just pretty fragile and I'd like to have them all in one piece."

"Do you seriously spend all your money on bathroom-related products?"

"Listen, skincare is very important."

Matsukawa takes a look into the box and then glares back at Hanamaki.

"This is enough for like a whole family," he remarks as he leaves the room with the box. "Do you seriously use everything in here?"

"Look how _good_ my skin looks, and then talk," Hanamaki yells from the kitchen.

"I mean from what I've seen so far, you haven't changed that much since high school."

Hanamaki actually gasps in shock and stops loading the box as he slowly turns around gives Matsukawa a death glare.

"That's the ugliest thing you ever said to me," he lets out, shaking his head at his words. "I'm actually offended."

Matsukawa smiles faintly, moves onto the next part of the apartment, the closet.

Hanamaki decides to make the packing less gloomy by playing some music from his phone, gently humming the words to the song as he places his favourite mug inside the box.

"No way!" comes from the closet, and the voice of Taylor Swift is quickly interrupted by Matsukawa's roaring laughter.

"What?" he asks and walks over to the source of the sound. "What did you find in my closet?"

Matsukawa resists the urge to shout 'you', and instead calls him to come in. Hanamaki's eyes almost fall out of his sockets when he spots Matsukawa, wearing his high-school jersey.

"Where did you find that?" he exclaims. "I've been looking for that for a year!"

"It was literally like right there," Matsukawa points to a random corner of the room and then turns back to the mirror. "I'm surprised it still fits."

"Why? It's not like you gained 500 pounds or something."

"I have been working out."

"Can't see it."

"Now I'm offended."

It's now Hanamaki's turn to sigh at his actions as he turns around at the heel and heads back to the kitchen to pack the final pieces of silverware. He manages to pack the two remaining boxes himself, wondering what's taking Matsukawa so long.

"I swear to god, if you're trying on every article of clothing I own-"

His words are stolen out of his mouth when he enters the closet again, his eyes meet with Matsukawa's, who has been for the past half an hour precisely folding every clothing item and stacking them in neat piles in the box.

"You don't have to fold them-"

"No," Matsukawa interrupts. "You're weird, Makki. You've got a box full of skin products, but you can't bother to fold your shirts properly."

He grabs a random shirt from the shelf as an example, the shape of the fold looking like a bad pentagon rather than the neat rectangle it should be.

"If you like to play housewife so much, you can re-fold my whole closet once we get it out of here," Hanamaki gently plucks the shirt out of his hands and lets it fall into the box. " I will heavily appreciate it, since I cannot be bothered by the shape of my shirts while I'm not wearing them."

"Nah," Matsukawa declines. "I'm showing you how to fold your clothes _properly_ , and you'll do the other ones."

Hanamaki groans.

"I won't feed you until I see it all folded nicely," he adds.

Matsukawa eventually follows Hanamaki's request, simply pulling the remainder of his shelves into the boxes, and once he's done, he drags them to the living room, next to the other ones. There's five in total, an amount the two of them wouldn't manage to carry at once, but since neither of them want to do a double trip, they come up with a solution.

They bring out all the boxes into the hall and call the elevator, and while Hanamaki uses himself as a block to keep the elevator open, Matsukawa pushes the boxes in. He then presses the button for the ground floor, and the two dash down the stairs, the thuds of their steps probably waking up half of the apartment complex.

They repeat the process once the elevator arrives, just doing everything in reverse now. Once they're all out, the apartment manager immediately offered to help, and not even the combined forces of the two best friends were enough for her to let go of her offer.

Now that everything was in place the three said their goodbyes, and the two head back. A problem called 'directions' suddenly appears, since Hanamaki can only direct people to his apartment, not back, and with Matsukawa having no idea in what goddamn part of Miyagi the two are, he groans when he understands the last option remaining is his biggest frenemy Google Maps.

"Turn right," his phone announces and Matsukawa almost loses it.

"Turn right where?" he yells at the robotic voice. "There's not even a right turn here!"

Hanamaki is having a laughing fit in the passenger’s seat, the frustration radiating off Matsukawa combined with the absurdity of the online GPS has him in a whole other dimension.

"Maybe," he starts, words hiccupped with laughter. "We could ask someone for directions?"

"What are we?" Matsukawa asks. "Tourists?"

The comment has Hanamaki's laughter escalating to the point where he's started to cough, and Matsukawa makes a mental note to shut up. He turns off the phone at the same moment and decides that he's able to get out of this mess himself.

When the two finally end up on a road they recognize, Matsukawa fist bumps Hanamaki, whose dried tears of joy created paths under both of his eyes, and he breaks into laughter again as he sees Matsukawa almost cry at the sight of Sendai in the distance.

"What's funny now?" he asks, sending him a concerned look.

"I don't even know anymore," the words come out as a series of wheezes, and Matsukawa can't help it, but laugh himself.

\-------------------

Hanamaki pushes the door to the apartment open with his back, the three boxes stacked in his arms swaying dangerously from side to side.

"Where can I drop these?" he asks, trying to still the waving motion of the boxes.

"Uh, you can throw the clothes into the closet, I'll find you a spare shelve," Matsukawa closes the door. "The other stuff, just put them wherever you want, to be honest."

Hanamaki does as told, sliding the clothes boxes into the closet and dragging the third one into the living room, next to where Matsukawa dropped off the two he carried.

He immediately sits down next to them, unpacking the one labelled 'living room'.

"Need a hand?"

"If you're feeling like it."

It doesn't take more for Matsukawa to sit down across Hanamaki and help him unload the boxes. The plants are placed on the right, photo frames are being grouped next to them, Hanamaki's seventeen scented candles are pushed into the hallway since the any of the smells combined with the amount of sleep he had would give Matsukawa a migraine, and all other clutter is placed to the left.

"You're kidding," Matsukawa scoffs as he takes out the last item from the box, pulling out a whole Nintendo Switch system.

"Uh, what about it?" Hanamaki takes the console from him and looks for a place to plug it in. "This was literally the first thing I packed when I moved out."

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Well, if you're thinking what I'm thinking, then yes?"

"Mario Kart?" Matsukawa waves the game in front of him.

"I'll destroy you."

"Don't be so sure."

\-------------------

"There's no way you're not cheating," Matsukawa hisses through the clicking.

"You're just pressed, because you're losing," Hanamaki responds, and effortlessly moves up a rank.

"I can't believe you went from last to fourth so fast," Matsukawa replies and groans as he hits a banana peel.

"Third," Hanamaki corrects him.

"Seriously?"

"I guess it's just luck."

"You literally got a mushroom three times in a row."

"And you hit a banana peel three times in a row."

"Exactly!"

"Do you want to switch consoles?"

"No."

"Because you know I'd still win."

Matsukawa elbows him, and Hanamaki giggles as he runs over a question block.

"Don't tell me it's another mushroom."

"Nah," Hanamaki smirks. "Red shell."

"Son of a-"

\-------------------

The game ends, of course, in Hanamaki's victory followed by Matsukawa tackling him to the floor with a pillow, mumbling for the next six minutes on how he cheated.

Hanamaki used that time to flip the entirety of the kitchen upside down, looking for something that could quench his insatiable hunger.

"The fridge is crying," Hanamaki remarks, leaning against the refrigerator door.

"I'll go grab groceries tomorrow, stop leaning on the door."

"I'm hungry."

"Then cook something."

"How am I supposed to cook myself something if there is literally nothing in the fridge?"

"I'm too lazy to go for a shopping trip now," Matsukawa groans from the floor. "Plus, you still have to unpack almost everything. Can you wait a little more or is it an emergency?"

Hanamaki closes the refrigerator door with a sigh and walks into the hallway to take care of the candles.

He slides his favourite into the living room, indicating he'd appreciate it there, and then stores the sixteen remaining ones into a spare cabinet in the bathroom. He then walks back into the living room, dragging the 'kitchen' box into the kitchen. Matsukawa watches as he unloads the plates and cups, not sure about where to place them. He decides to stand back and observe quietly, sometimes throwing him a comment to help him find the correct drawer.

"Silverware is the second from the bottom."

"Cups are on the left."

"That's for pans not pots."

After an umpteenth remark, Hanamaki has had just about enough of Matsukawa and sends his message by throwing a plastic lid like a frisbee, and if it wasn't for Matsukawa's reflexes, his living room wall would hold a new decoration.

"I'm really thankful you're not dealing with silverware now," he comments and slides the lid back.

As in perfect timing, Hanamaki takes out a butcher knife.

"Truth or dare?"

"What are you going to do? Murder me in my own apartment? Romantic."

That seems to do the trick as Hanamaki places the knife away, magically guessing the drawer on the first time.

"I'll wait for you in the closet, join me after you're done," he walks out. "I was dead serious about the shirt folding."

\-------------------

"Directions unclear, I think," Hanamaki says and shows Matsukawa his creation who sighs at the sight of the odd-looking quadrilateral.

"Maybe if you were actually looking at me while I'm showing you how to do it."

The thing was Hanamaki was actually looking at Matsukawa, but he was looking at _Matsukawa_ instead of the shirt-folding instructions.

"Now, sideways into thirds, sleeves _in._ "

"Check."

"Any sleeves sticking out?"

"Yep."

"Fold them in."

"Uh-huh."

"Now just fold it in half."

"Which way."

"Up."

Hanamaki finishes the final fold, and looks up at Matsukawa like a puppy, expecting his thoughts.

"See?" Matsukawa exclaims and holds the perfectly folded shirt in front of him. "It's not that hard! Now try by yourself."

Hanamaki looks at the shirt laid out in front of him like it were a math exam and carefully runs the instructions in his head one by one. He folds the first sleeve. Then the second. Tucks what sticks out into the middle and folds in half.

Nails it.

"Finally," Matsukawa sighs and pats him on the shoulder. "Meet me in the living room once you're done."

Hanamaki's smile of victory is immediately wiped off his face as he realized he's surrounded by unfolded clothes.

\-------------------

Matsukawa counts sixteen minutes of peace before the tv show is interrupted by a scream, followed by thunderous steps.

 _Long-sleeves,_ he immediately thinks.

Matsukawa tries really hard not to laugh, but the sight of Hanamaki at the verge of crying, holding a scrunched up long-sleeved shirt is probably the funniest thing he ever saw in his life.

"Fold the sleeves parallel to the sides, and tuck whatever is sticking out."

Hanamaki nods in understanding and heads back, and after hearing no more ruckus, Matsukawa's attention returns to the soap opera.

Hanamaki joins him just as the credits roll as he plops down on the couch from exhaustion.

"Should I check or do I trust you?" Matsukawa asks a rhetorical question but decides not to torment his best friend any more. He stands up from the couch and pokes at the almost lifeless Hanamaki next to him in the process.

"Get in loser, we're going shopping."

Hanamaki lets out the chuckle into the sofa, before doing a somersault and standing up on the other side. Matsukawa is used to Hanamaki's almost gymnast-level flexibility but it always stuns him for a second whenever he sees him do something.

Well, what does he expect from someone who did ballet as a kid?

The first way he remembers seeing him use his flexibility in was when he casually asked him to look at something behind him during practice. Instead of turning around like a normal person, Hanamaki bends over and almost falls into a bridge, scaring half of the first-years by doing so.

The second, and most common use is the way in which Hanamaki naturally places himself into a pancake split whenever he's doing practically anything; whether it's writing a biology essay, reading the newest chapter of a weekly manga, or just listening to the conversations around him, and Matsukawa can't help himself but find it stupidly adorable.

The third is the way he continues to stretch every day, even though his ballet days are long over; Matsukawa finds the dedication to keep his flexibility so _intriguing_ , and he always subconsciously smiles when he sees him doing a split against the wall, walking on his hands, doing an aerial in the middle of an empty hall...anything, to be honest.

The fourth and final is the stupid trick where Hanamaki is able to dislocate and relocate both of his shoulders, earning himself the first place in the 'weirdest shit someone can do' competition. He's seen him to it three times, first time when he introduced it to everyone, a second time when Oikawa begged him to do it again, and then the third time, where it happened unintentionally and while the rest of the group took it as a joke, the actual fear in his eyes quickly told Matsukawa that he actually can't relocate it.

_"Guys," Matsukawa shushes the group. "Guys, he's actually stuck."_

_"Wait, Makki, for real?" Iwaizumi asks._

_"Yeah, I actually can't put it back," Hanamaki tries again, and his fear grows as he continues to fail._

_"Can't you just do what you always do?" Oikawa asks._

_"No," Hanamaki shakes his head. "I didn't plan it to dislocate this time, I don't have control over it."_

_Iwaizumi whips out his phone to dial 119, but Matsukawa stops him._

_"Do you trust me?" he asks Hanamaki, needing affirmation because he's not entirely sure if he even trusts himself._

_"Of course," Hanamaki nods._

_"Lie down."_

_Hanamaki instantly drops down and lies in his back, extending the dislocated arm towards Matsukawa. He takes it into his hands, and before Oikawa can make a remark about how Matsukawa does not have enough medical experience and knowledge to be relocating shoulders, Matsukawa pulls and successfully pops Hanamaki's arm back, who immediately giggles at the sound._

_"It's not funny, you idiot," Matsukawa scolds him. "I see you doing that trick once again and I'll make sure you're not locating that arm back anytime soon."_

_Hanamaki immediately feels a wave of shame wash over him and mutters out an apology._

_"Don't apologize," Matsukawa continues. "You just scared me. I care way too much about you to just let you hurt yourself, intentionally or not."_

_Oikawa and Iwaizumi just exchange a look of a mutual thought and hush the two to sleep._

"Can you still do a split?" Matsukawa asks for fun, and before he finished the question, Hanamaki stretches into his signature pancake position.

"Cute," Matsukawa whispers lightly for himself and heads to the hallway.

\-------------------

Even though they've left the apartment a little after twelve, they get to the actual shop at half-past two.

The only reason being that on their way, Matsukawa spotted that his favourite restaurant was open again after a long break, and he forced Hanamaki to let him buy lunch.

They enter the shop laughing at a joke one of them told twenty minutes ago, the shopping list now a scrunched-up newspaper lookalike.

"I hate those Russian dolls," Matsukawa randomly says while he takes a shopping cart.

"Matryoshkas?" Hanamaki asks. "Why?"

"They're so full of themselves."

Hanamaki almost falls to the floor, entering a similar fit to the one he had in the morning, a one in which pointing out a colour of someone's shirt can send him into a bigger wave of laughter.

"Where," Hanamaki tries to catch his own breath, "Where did a cd go dancing?"

"I don't know, Makki," Matsukawa replies, a smile appearing on his face without even hearing the punchline.

"The disco."

Matsukawa doesn't know if he's laughing more at the joke that Hanamaki pulled out from a book of terrible jokes, or on his stone-cold execution of the punchline, but the two are in such frenzy that people around start giving them looks.

It's not every day you see two grown men laughing their asses off on practically nothing in the middle of the bread aisle.

"Okay, okay, enough," Matsukawa calms himself down and hands Hanamaki the shopping list. "Please go grab the bread and the cereal, meet me in the dairy aisle."

Hanamaki takes the list, remains of the laughing fit still present on his face, and the two disappear into opposite directions.

Hanamaki comes back to Matsukawa in less than a minute, placing the bread and pastries into the cart and passing him back the shopping list.

"I'm looking for the Oikos yoghurts," Matsukawa answers Hanamaki's unasked question and pushes past him as he spots them in the neighbourhooding shelf. Hanamaki shivers at the cold, his sensitivity to low temperature hitting in.

"Still?" Matsukawa asks as he adds the dairy products into the cart.

"Still what?"

"Still sensitive to the cold?"

"It's not like it magically disappears once I become an adult," Hanamaki frowns at him. "Besides you have no right to talk. You're practically in the same situation, it's just the other way around for you."

A thing that struck people who knew the two well as shocking, was that how similar they were personality-wise, they were almost polar opposites with their personal traits. While Hanamaki was sensitive to the cold, Matsukawa didn't handle hot temperatures well. Hanamaki had a sweet tooth, Matsukawa preferred spicy. One had a ten-step skincare routine but didn't know how to fold shirts, while the other used 3 in 1 body wash but his closet looked like from a magazine.

Well, opposites attract in the end.

\-------------------

"Makki put the bottles down."

"No. I'm getting these."

"What even are those?"

"Wine."

"What wine?"

"Malbec."

"What?"

"Red, sweet, full-body, fruity-"

"That's enough, thank you."

Hanamaki places the bottles into the cart, ignoring Matsukawa shaking his head in disapproval at him.

"You're going to drink those?" Matsukawa asks, pushing the cart into Hanamaki, telling him to move.

Instead, Hanamaki pushes himself up on the cart, earning another sigh from Matsukawa.

"We can drink them together," he leans over the cart as Matsukawa continues to push it through the aisle. "Have wine nights together."

"I don't drink sweet, and I prefer red," Matsukawa says in the most stoic way possible as he scans through the remaining objects on the shopping list. "And get off the cart."

"Did you lose your sense of taste?" Hanamaki glares. "How can you _not_ like sweet wine?"

"It's too heavy."

"Aw, would it get you drunk easily?"

"I don't think you're the most appropriate person to talk about being drunk, Makki."

"Yesterday wasn't caused by wine."

"Still."

Hanamaki rolls his eyes as he props himself up on his hands and continues to watch Matsukawa.

"Do you know where I can find mustard?" Matsukawa asks, looking around himself.

"Not in the canned goods aisle."

"Thank you, Sherlock."

"I think we passed the condiment aisle a while back."

Matsukawa backtracks out of the aisle and heads back to where they came from, resisting the urge to race the cart through the shop.

_"We are going to get kicked out of this shop so bad," Iwaizumi sighs._

_"But we're going to get kicked out in style," Matsukawa adds._

_"Exactly," Oikawa nods._

_"Comfortable, Makki?"_

_"Yuh."_

_"Shittykawa?"_

_"Yes."_

_With that, Matsukawa and Iwaizumi race through the store, acting as if they don't have a second person in their carts._

_Iwaizumi dashes through the bread aisle, Oikawa quickly pulling a packet of milk bread into the cart. Matsukawa and Hanamaki trail right behind them, Hanamaki yelling directions from the cart.  
"Fifth aisle from the left."_

_"Isn't that the candy aisle?"_

_"Exactly."_

_Matsukawa drifts into the aisle, almost knocking over the stand with gummy bears. Hanamaki raises his hand to stop and his eyes land onto the place where profiteroles should be, but instead, his gaze meets and empty shelf._

_He whines in disappointment._

_"Fast forward," Hanamaki says._

_He keeps his hand in the air as Matsukawa bolts through the aisle, pulling half of the second shelf into the cart._

_"You're going to get diabetes from all that sugar."_

_"Happily."_

_They head into the beverage aisle, where Hanamaki grabs a coke bottle. They are just about to drift back into the main aisle when suddenly a second cart comes into view._

_Matsukawa has about two seconds to brake before the two carts collide._

_Hanamaki almost flies over to Iwaizumi's cart at the impact, and Oikawa screams._

_"Oh, it's just the two of you," Matsukawa sighs in relief. "Thank god."_

_Hanamaki's eyes almost pop out of his sockets when he spots the profiteroles next to Oikawa._

_"Son of a-" Hanamaki reaches into the shopping cart, but Oikawa quickly hides the package behind him. "Give me those."_

_Oikawa grins._

_Hanamaki's gaze quickly flies over to the milk bread on the other side of the cart, and before Oikawa can react, Hanamaki is already holding the packet in his hand._

_"The profiteroles, now."_

_Oikawa hisses._

_"We can just get another packet, Oikawa," Iwaizumi reassures him._

_"No," Oikawa shakes his head. "This is about the principle of not sticking your hands in other people's shopping carts."_

_"Give. Me. The. Profiteroles. Now."_

_"Oikawa, for your own wellbeing, I'd give him the profiteroles, unless you want all hell to break loose," Matsukawa joins in on the conversation._

_Hanamaki waits for one, two, three seconds, before standing up in the cart._

_"Oikawa Tōru, give me the profiteroles now, or I will step on you and take them myself."_

_Oikawa taps the shopping cart twice, a signal Hanamaki immediately understands._

_He throws the milk bread away, and as Iwaizumi starts to flee with Oikawa, jumps into their cart._

_The cart flies out of Iwaizumi's grip at the impact, Oikawa and Hanamaki still wrestling inside of it as it starts to spin without control._

_They crash into a nearby freezer and fly out of the cart, but not even that was enough to stop their fight._

_Iwaizumi and Matsukawa only watched as Hanamaki places Oikawa into a headlock, Oikawa holding the profiteroles in front of him._

_"Let go, or I swear to god, will make you pass out."_

_"Fuck... off."_

_Iwaizumi starts to pick up the items that fell out of the cart along with Oikawa and Hanamaki, while Matsukawa watches from the distance, tempted to videotape the whole ordeal._

_What neither of them expect is for Oikawa to lean forward and bite Hanamaki._

_"You little-" Hanamaki scowls as Oikawa wrangles out of his grasp. With the only thing on his mind rind now being that pack of profiteroles, Hanamaki brings his knees to his chest and kicks Oikawa with full force to the back of his legs._

_Striking both his healthy and injured knee._

_Oikawa yells out at least seven profanities, Hanamaki instantly realizing his mistake when he senses Iwaizumi's death glare._

_"You...donkey..." Oikawa hisses._

_"On a scale of a rock to Einstein, how much brainpower did you use for that move?" Iwaizumi asks._

_"Shit, Oikawa, are you okay?" Matsukawa adds._

_"Man, can you walk?" Hanamaki walks over to him. "Do you need help?_

_"I'm not dying, Makki," Oikawa looks up. "You just managed to hit a stupid joint."_

_Hanamaki helps Oikawa up and it seems that their wrestling contest was over, until they both notice the packet on the floor._

_They both dart after it at the same time, but Matsukawa and Iwaizumi are faster._

_Matsukawa raises his hand so Iwaizumi can't reach the packet, and before the other two can catch up with them, whispers something to him and Iwaizumi agrees._

_"Issei, don't you dare do what I think you're about to do."_

_"Don't use my government name like that, Takahiro."_

_"They are profiteroles," Hanamaki hisses. "They're going to break if you throw them."_

_"You're still going to eat them," Matsukawa replies and throws the packet._

_Oikawa is quick to understand that this competition went from Oikawa vs. Hanamaki to Hanamaki vs. Destroyed Profiteroles, so he stands back and watches as Hanamaki shifts to maximum gear and bolts to the other side of the store. Hanamaki realizes he won't get to the other side in time, so in the final moments, he leaps and dives for it._

_Grabbing the bag, he flips on his back and crashes into the shelf with cleaning products._

_He sighs in relief as he holds the candy to his chest, ignoring the soap bottles that topple around him and the roaring applause and laughter from his classmates._

"Oi, oi, oi, stop, stop, stop," Hanamaki's yapping and shaking of the cart brings Matsukawa back to reality.

"What?"

"Go back one aisle."

He pulls the cart back, and before he sees which aisle they were in, Hanamaki has already jumped off the cart and was running his hand along the shelf, looking for something.

Matsukawa literally sees a star flash in Hanamaki's eyes as he encounters what he was looking for.

He turns back from the shelf and waves with the two packs of profiteroles at him.

"Of course," Matsukawa clicks his tongue.

Hanamaki tosses the packets into the shopping cart with perfect accuracy and trots back to look at the shopping list in Matsukawa's hands.

"What are we missing?" he asks, searching in between the crossed-out products.

"Just the mustard."

"Oh yeah, right," Hanamaki stops for a bit and thinks, and then disappears in the aisle to the left.

"Classic?" he asks from in between the shelves.

"Yeah," Matsukawa confirms and takes the cart and himself to the aisle in which Hanamaki is currently studying mustard.

Hanamaki turns around, two different mustards in each hand. After picking the one in his left, Hanamaki throws the mustard to the direction of the cart, but Matsukawa catches it mid-air.

"Don't throw condiments," Matsukawa scolds him, but Hanamaki seems to pay no attention to his remarks as he pulls the cart to the self-checkout register.

"You can start scanning, I just remember something I wanted to get, I'll be right back," Hanamaki suddenly spurts out and Matsukawa doesn't even have time to respond before he disappears somewhere in the shop.

He starts to scan the items, and as he's about to reach for something in the furthermost end of the cart, a lollipop stand catches his interest. A smirk appears on his face as he spins the stand around, looking for one specific kind.

Finally, when his eyes spot the flavour he's looking for, he plucks out the single strawberry lollipop from the stand and slides it across the scanner.

Hanamaki appears almost right after, sliding the box of eggs along the scanner.

"Eggs?"

"They weren't in the fridge when I looked."

Matsukawa smiles at Hanamaki's attention to detail and continues to scan the products.

\-------------------

"You seriously couldn't have gotten a bag?" Hanamaki asks, trying to balance the groceries in his hands, the two bottles of wine swinging dangerously loose from between his fingers.

"No," Matsukawa replies. "I'm not giving them 50 yen for a piece of plastic."

"You could have at least parked closer them," Hanamaki notes. "Or you could have bought less junk, what do you even need that watermelon for?"

"If you don't stop complaining I'll hit you with said watermelon so hard you'll need my services," Matsukawa responds. "Besides, it's not like I told you to carry most of it."

"It's the least I can do," Hanamaki replies.

His brain stops at the words, as he realizes that that wasn’t the first time Hanamaki had said them in that way.

_"It's the least I can do."_

_"Least I can do, my ass," Matsukawa shakes his head at him. "You've been tutoring me for how long now? Three weeks? Not to mention for free!"_

_"Yeah and?" Hanamaki asks. "You're my friend!"_

_"Yeah and?" Matsukawa rolls his eyes at the response. "Don't you have better things to do?"_

_"Like what?" Hanamaki twirls the lollipop between his fingers._

_"I don't know, anything?"_

_"Listen," Hanamaki spins around in the chair. "My house is crazy and you know that. The only activity we have is volleyball, and Mondays are off. So, what should I do?"_

_"Maybe help your little sister with homework?" Matsukawa suggests._

_"I'd way rather tutor you than her," Hanamaki sweeps the idea off the table. "She may be brighter, but you're way less annoying."_

_Matsukawa smacks him over the head with his textbook._

_"Deserved," Hanamaki rubs the impacted spot before pushing Matsukawa's chair to the side and pointing at the math problem._

_"Do you get it now?"_

_"Makki, I think I understand it less than before."_

_"Jeez, with this rate you're going to end up working at a funeral home or something."_

He wasn't wrong after all.

Matsukawa snaps back from his daydream and subconsciously, his eyes instantly lock on Hanamaki who's wearing a light smile, something that he does if he's lost in a daydream of his own. He nudges him, lightly enough to keep the Jenga tower of his products stable, but hard enough for him to click back to reality as well.

"Yes?"

A lightbulb lights up above Matsukawa's head as he realizes he has still forgotten to do one thing. He stops, layers all the items he's holding onto his left hand, as he whirrs through his pocket with his right one. After struggling with all the contents of said pocket for a good minute, he finally takes out what he was looking for; the strawberry lollipop.

"Seriously?" Hanamaki asks. "How do you even remember that?"

"How could I not?" he smiles back. "You asked for one almost every day. You probably own me like a fifty thousand yen in lollipops now."

"You own me the same amount for tutoring lessons," Hanamaki shoots back.

"Touché."

Hanamaki places the products on the floor and takes the item from between Matsukawa's fingers. Once he has popped the lollipop in his mouth, he picks the purchase back up, not even slightly altering the formation.

Matsukawa is absolutely amazed by his balance and coordination but keeps it to himself.

\-------------------

The drive back is used to continue the conversation they started on the way to the shop, Hanamaki comparing Matsukawa's questioning to an FBI investigation, a move which backfired as it only led to Matsukawa to start bullying him.

"Why don't you tell me something about yourself?" Hanamaki interjects into Matsukawa's question and changes his seating position for about the sixth time during the ride.

"Well, what do you want to know?"

"Anything."

Matsukawa enters a monologue, something that Hanamaki stops listening to after five seconds, his entire point of interest focused on Matsukawa's arms. He's practically hypnotized by how his muscles flex and extend as he goes to switch gears and then returns to the wheel. He's blessing all the gods for keeping Matsukawa looking at the road instead of even just glancing to his left since the way he's practically _fixed_ onto his biceps would be pretty awkward to explain.

 _He wasn't lying when he said he was working out,_ flies through his head, but the thought doesn't last long as Matsukawa suddenly slams on the brakes, sending Hanamaki back to the present world.

"Fucking hell," he groans and honks at the car in front. "You good?"

"Yeah, " Hanamaki quickly turns to face the street outside. "Just caught me off guard."

\-------------------

Hanamaki had been living at Matsukawa's for little under two weeks, but the two of them have already adapted to one another as it they were living together for months.

During the workdays, Matsukawa would wake up a few minutes before his alarm which was set at seven, and when he walked into the kitchen, Hanamaki was already up as well, awakened by the ruckus. While Hanamaki went through his morning routine, Matsukawa prepared tea, letting it cool down as the two made breakfast together.

Matsukawa would leave for his job just before half-past seven, leaving Hanamaki alone in the apartment, and even though he had troubles at first coming up with things to do, he always managed to find some activities that would keep him occupied for the day. It would usually start by him listing through the job ads of the daily newspaper, checking out every that he'd possibly be fit for. After that he'd do something for the household; clean, do the laundry, fill the fridge, wipe the minimal dust off the shelves; there was always something for him to do.

After that, he'd make himself lunch, always making a little more than he needed, a portion he would store in the fridge, knowing Matsukawa would use it as his midnight snack.

After lunch, he'd go outside for fresh air, usually strolling in the small nearby park, always making sure to come back before Matsukawa, both because he didn't want Matsukawa to worry about his whereabouts and because he'd way rather spend time with him than alone.

When Matsukawa finally arrived back from his job, he'd insist on making dinner, a request Hanamaki would have to oblige once Matsukawa pulled out the 'I own this place' card. The evening would usually conclude with a movie or a weekly TV show, depending on the day of the week, the apartment falling silent before the clock struck eleven.

The weekends aren't much different except for the fact that there was no set time when either of them woke up, and that instead of going to work Matsukawa would join Hanamaki in his daily shenanigans, often dragging him outside, murmuring something along the words of ' _if you're going to stay inside 24/7, you're gonna rot,_ ' followed by Hanamaki explaining to him how he goes out literally every day. The city exploration usually ends up in a museum or gallery visit, filled with imitation of statues and mocking expressions on paintings. Saturday evenings turned into cinema nights, followed by buying half of the beverages from the one of the few 24/7 convenience stores in Miyagi and managing to drink half of their purchase before they even reached the apartment.

Today is a Saturday.

"Mattsun?" Hanamaki asks from his usual spot on the couch.

"Yeah?"

"How much is the rent for this place?"

"There isn't. I bought it."

"Well, then what's the utility bill for this month?"

"Why do you need to know?"

"I want to contribute."

Matsukawa almost drops the plate he was wiping.

"No."

"What do you mean, no?" Hanamaki stares at him. "I live in this apartment too; I should pay for it as well."

"No," Matsukawa takes another plate from the sink. "I already told you, you don't need to pay for anything."

"Well, I don't want to live off you," Hanamaki protests. "What's the bill."

"I don't know yet," Matsukawa looks up at him, continuing to monotonously wipe the plates. "And even if I knew I wouldn't tell you, because guess what? You're not paying for anything."

"Issei, I am _not_ a charity case. I have money."

"Do you have a stable source of income?"

"No, but I have some money saved."

Matsukawa stops to wipe the plates, for the sole reason of smacking Hanamaki with the cloth.

"No," he repeats and returns to the dishes.

"You can stop me from paying the bills, but you can't stop me from buying the groceries," Hanamaki grins.

"What are you going to buy if I never give you the shopping list?" Matsukawa grins back.

"I'll look into the fridge, and find out what we're missing myself," Hanamaki replies. "I've been doing it for the two weeks I've lived here."

Matsukawa places his face in his hands and sighs loudly.

"Fine, okay, I give up, you win," he grabs another plate from the pile. "You get groceries, and that's it. Nothing more."

Hanamaki smiles in victory.

"But I'm not letting you sleep on the couch anymore. You're going to get scoliosis from that."

"Uh, where else am I supposed to sleep?" Hanamaki asks. "It's not like you've got a spare bed or something, unless?"

"I'm pretty sure you can fit at least three people into the one in the bedroom."

_Oh lord, that sounded really wrong._

"Well, um, there is this room where I keep all my junk," Matsukawa stutters. "And we could clear that out and-"

"It's not like we have never shared a bed," Hanamaki interrupts. "If that's what you meant of course."

"Yeah, that's what I was talking about."

"Okay."

"Okay."

Standing at the opposite sides of the room, looking away from each other, both of them wish for nothing but a black hole opening underneath them and sucking them from the surface of planet Earth.

Maybe even from the entire universe.

The sound of keys jingling breaks the awkward silence.

"Catch," Matsukawa says, tossing a pair of keys to Hanamaki. " _You live in this apartment too_."

Hanamaki catches the keys and observes its three contents.

First, the keycard to the main door.

Second, the key to the apartment.

Three, a circular keychain with a sticker on it, labelling it as "23A SPARE".


	2. mistlefoe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Not so fast," Hanamaki stops him and shoves an apron into his hands.  
> "Seriously?" Matsukawa wails.  
> Hanamaki's glare suggests nothing but.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> head's up for some possible triggers/content warnings for this chapter
> 
> needles (piercings)  
> suggestive jokes here n there

Even though Matsukawa was a person not woken up easily, Hanamaki who's steps were loud as an elephant's, always did the trick.

"Hanamaki, what are you doing?"

"Go back to sleep, I'm not even here."

"No you get back here, why are you even up?

"It's snowing."

"Okay, and?"

"Mattsun, it's _snowing_."

"You're acting like if it has never snowed in Japan."

"Well, I don't remember it ever snowing this much, this early."

Matsukawa sighs before getting up and walking towards the window, where Hanamaki was standing and watching the snow in awe.

"You know you can go out right?" he says. "The balconies have roofs."

The moment the last sentence leaves Matsukawa’s lips, Hanamaki doesn't hesitate to open the balcony door, almost ripping out the handle in the process. He tramples out, absolutely underdressed for the weather and barefoot, just to experience snow.

“You’re like a five-year-old,” Matsukawa comments from the door.

Hanamaki doesn't respond, instead, he runs his hand on the railing, pushing the snow off. He then leans on it, as he sticks his tongue out, collecting tiny snowflakes.

“Don’t fall, dumbass,” Matsukawa adds, watching in amusement.

Hanamaki gives him a grin before turning back to his previous activity.

Thinking about it, there have been a very few occasions during which Matsukawa has seen Hanamaki this happy. He was a weird type when it came to what gave him serotonin, it was usually the little, seemingly unimportant things that made him the happiest. He has never been one that would heavily enjoy big sentimental gifts; he preferred minimalism, and even with his extroverted nature, he would often spend his time in smaller groups.

His thoughts are interrupted by Hanamaki saying something.

"Once again?" he asks.

"Hand me my phone, please."

Matsukawa grabs Hanamaki's phone from the bedside table and hands it to him, watching him take a few snaps of the snow-covered city before sending them over to the group chat. Matsukawa grabs his phone as well, interested in Hanamaki's caption.

**hanamaki 08:36**

attachment: 1 image

bet you dont get this in argentina

A few seconds later, Oikawa responds with a picture of his dinner.

**oikawa 08:37**

attachment: 1 image

bet you dont get this in japan

Matsukawa clicks his tongue.

**me 08:37**

who tf eats dinner at 8? 

A minute later his phone buzzes again, Hanamaki's gasp indicating that things are about to get heated. Matsukawa opens the phone and reads through the latest message.

**iwaizumi 08:38**

attachment: 1 image

Bet you don't get _these_ in Argentina.

Matsukawa has to hold his laugh in when he opens the image, revealing a selfie of Iwaizumi, complete with the snowy background and a packet of milk bread in his hand.

**oikawa 08:38**

that was uncalled for, iwa-chan

**iwaizumi 08:38**

When are you coming back home?

**oikawa 08:38**

dont know. soon though. we should all meet up

**hanamaki 08:39**

aw, do u miss us?

"Don't push him too much, Makki, or he'll have a breakdown at dinner."

A laugh comes from the balcony.

**oikawa 08:39**

that and i have a lot to tell you about

**hanamaki 08:39**

sis got tea to spill?

**iwaizumi 08:39**

Please tell me he doesn't talk like that in real life.

**me 08:39**

he does 

**hanamaki 08:40**

moot lied on tl, might softblock

**iwaizumi 08:40**

I'm not even going to try and understand.

"Okay enough outside time, get back inside!" Matsukawa calls out as he shuts off his phone. "I'm not going to take care of you if you get sick."

"Can we have a snowball fight later though?"

"You're seriously a five-year-old," Matsukawa sighs. "But sure. Get inside now though."

Hanamaki doesn't need to be told more as he hops back inside and shivers.

"I swear to God-"

"I have very good immunity, Mattsun, don't worry."

The series of sneezes that followed after did not persuade Matsukawa at all.

\-------------------

Hanamaki's snowball fight came true later that day when Matsukawa dragged him to the market, hissing at him along the way to wait until they are out of the marketplace to start bombarding him with the snow.

He was about to give Hanamaki the pass, but the moment they turned the corner, Matsukawa was already shaking snow out of his hair. He sighs, sticks the bag with green onions into his jacket and dodges another blast, taking cover behind a bench next to him.

He peeks up, and his eyes meet Hanamaki's, who's now hiding behind a wall, mischief glistening in his eyes. He decides to move to the other end of the bench and is about halfway through when he realized Hanamaki is currently leaping over it, sending a shower of snow right at his face.

Hanamaki lands in the bushes, and when Matsukawa realized that he had just given him a crazy advantage, he doesn't hesitate a second to start massacring him with snowballs.

Hanamaki yells, both in surrender and at the fact that he feels the snow falling behind his clothes.

"Please have mercy!" he wails and Matsukawa halts his movements while smirking at him.

"Weren't you the one who asked for this?" he asks and squishes the snow between his fingers. "Or do you only want to play if you're winning?"

Hanamaki scrunches his face and lets Matsukawa pull him back up, and before he can turn around, he feels a bundle of snow being pushed down his shirt.

"What happened to _don't catch a cold_?" Hanamaki whines at Matsukawa who just stares at him with and a shit-eating grin.

"I feel like standing in freezing weather in thin ass pyjamas and with no shoes can make you sick easier than a bit of snow under your shirt."

"A bit? It feels like the whole entirety of Mt. Fuji is biting at my ass."

"Come on, drama queen," he whacks him with the onions and Hanamaki immediately starts walking.

The walk home is anything but peaceful; Hanamaki tries to get revenge on Matsukawa during six different occasions and almost succeeds the last time, only to stop his actions when he sees a kid no older than five staring at him and realized he'd only set a bad example.

Suddenly, Matsukawa realizes he's walking alone and quickly turns around to find out where he lost Hanamaki and sighs in relief as he spots him staring into a display window of a jewellery shop.

"What caught your attention?" he asks, as he stands next to him.

Hanamaki motions towards a set of diamond earrings and then sighs.

"If only I'd have my ears pierced."

"Is that a comment or a request?"

"Pick."

"It's an honour to be blessed by such an opportunity-"

"Shut up."

Hanamaki watches as Matsukawa's eyes jump from the earrings to the price tag and then back, and he almost tackles him to the ground.

"If you buy them, I'll personally stick them down your throat-"

"Whoa, when did I ever say something like that?" Matsukawa puts his hands up in defence and takes a step back.

"I know that look," Hanamaki slants his eyes. "It's the how-much-do-you-think-he's-going-to-cry-if-I-get-him-this look."

"There's no such thing," Matsukawa scoffs. "At least not in my case."

"I warned you."

\-------------------

Hanamaki almost slams the door in Matsukawa's face as he lets out another godforsaken pickup line, but not even that stops him from tormenting his ears.

"Makki?"

"God, please not another one."

"Do you know how to perform CPR?"

"Maybe? I don't know I've never had to do it."

"And, you ruined it."

"Thank god."

It's not Matsukawa's turn to be enamoured, watching practically with hearts instead of his eyes as Hanamaki takes off his jacket and ruffles his hair, quickly looking away when he looks up, eyes almost meeting.

“Your hair’s getting a little long,” Matsukawa suddenly blurts out.

“Yeah, I know, I’ll trim it,” he murmurs back an answer.

“You’ll end up looking like that Shiratorizawa setter if you do it yourself.”

Hanamaki eyerolls.

“Look, it’s something I got from your sister actually,” Matsukawa defends his point. “She told me that it’s way better to have someone else give you a haircut since a second person has better access to all the necessary angles.”

“Okay, apprentice hairdresser,” Hanamaki sighs. “You have permission to trim my hair. Though if you’ll fuck it up, I swear to god I will-“

“I’m doing this for you own good, Makki,” Matsukawa places an arm on his shoulder. “Appearance plays an important role in job interviews.”

“Oh? Are you trying to say something?”

“Currently, you’re fine,” he flicks his forehead. “But give it a month and you’ll look like someone who crawled out of a garbage disposal.”

"I still don't like the idea of you and scissors near my hair."

"So, you trust me with an ear-piercing and not a haircut?" Matsukawa wonders. "That's odd."

Hanamaki sighs.

“Come on then.”

Five minutes later he's sitting on a stool Matsukawa dragged into the bathroom, a towel on his shoulders.

"Okay, how much?" Matsukawa asks.

"I don't know, like this much maybe?" Hanamaki shows him by pinching his fingers. Matsukawa takes the comb and scissors from the sink and crouches down to the left of Hanamaki.

"For your own sake don't move."

Hanamaki practically freezes at the sound of Matsukawa's voice so close to him, and he's thankful that he's not currently in front of him since his face is gaining the shade of a tomato.

_Snip._

"This okay or do you want more?" Matsukawa asks.

Hanamaki glances in the mirror and nods at the difference, moving back to his previous position so Matsukawa can continue.

He's trying to focus on _anything_ but Matsukawa right next to him, he's counting the tiles on the ground, mentally measuring the size of every object on the sink, thinking about what he'll cook for dinner, anything.

That train of thought is going nicely until it crashes into a mountain when Matsukawa moves right in front of him and now that another of his senses is blocked by him Hanamaki feels like a ticking bomb.

It's like the only thing in the room, in the whole world is Matsukawa Issei, and the most Hanamaki can do is close his eyes and pray to every god there is that he isn't blushing.

What he doesn't know that the person right in front of him is actually grateful for him deciding to close his eyes since otherwise, he'd notice that Matsukawa is on the verge of exploding.

His hand is practically shaking, and he has to stabilize it with his second one for a few seconds in order to not create a disaster.

The two manage to wrap it up without either of them fainting, and five minutes later are going on with their lives as if they just didn't come close to dying by an adrenaline overdose.

"Okay colour scheme," Hanamaki notes, now looking at the now colour-sorted groups of ornaments.

"Colour scheme?"

"Yes, colour scheme. You can't just throw it all on, it's going to look like shit."

"Well, what do we have the most of?"

"Red and white," Hanamaki answers, roughly estimating the number. "Plus, there are some golden ones in the miscellaneous section which could go nicely with that too."

"You know what," Matsukawa sighs. "I think I'm just going to leave you to that. It seems like you know it better."

"Oi, do you think I'm just letting you slack on Christmas decor just like that?"

"No, I'll do the lights."

"Use the ones we got, the white-golden ones."

"No, I think I'm going to go with the blue ones- of course I'll use the white ones, you don't have to remind me everything."

"Reminder for you to drink enough water and get _enough_ sleep," Hanamaki continues, the accent the used with 'enough' earning him a hiss from Matsukawa.

"I'll strangle you with these lights."

"There are more comfortable strangling devices, please settle for a different option."

"It's unbelievable how you can make any situation funny," Matsukawa laughs and starts to put on the lights.

"My dear Matsukawa," Hanamaki coos. "I have a talent of being able to bring out the absolute best from _any_ situation."

"Mr. Do It All," Matsukawa brings back the nickname and Hanamaki cringes at the response. "Who came up with that name?"

"You did, idiot," Hanamaki playfully elbows him and starts placing the first ornaments on the bottom. "It's a terrible nickname, seriously."

"How did you want me to call you then?"

"Preferably through a street payphone, exactly as the clock strikes two at a Friday evening during a heavy rainfall."

Matsukawa freezes at how specific that sounded.

"Oddly specific, Makki," he returns to the lights. "Even for you."

"Let a man dream, Mattsun."

Matsukawa being his typical blunt self lets the hint fly over his head like a balloon.

\-------------------

The two stare at the tree from behind the kitchen counter, both impressed by their collective work.

"Okay, that actually looks really good."

"Right? And to say it was done by the two of us?"

"Look we were always a killer duo."

"Yeah, but we always were the duo to _destruct_ things, not _create_ them."

"True."

The two turn to each other and high five, and Matsukawa remembers a detail.

"Aren't you forgetting something?"

Hanamaki looks at the tree and then back at Matsukawa.

"Am I?"

Matsukawa draws a circle in the air near his ear, and the gears immediately click in Hanamaki's head.

"Oh yeah, you wanna do it _now_?"

"I mean it was your idea."

"But you offered."

"But you asked."

"Okay, let's do it."

"Okay."

\-------------------

It's the second time this day they're both in the bathroom at the same time, faces no more than one foot apart, but this time, Hanamaki has a place to blame his nervousness on.

"Which side first?" Matsukawa asks as he scrambles through the box.

"Uh, whichever you want," Hanamaki quickly mumbles out an answer.

"Indecisive as always," he sighs as he finally finds the needle he's been looking for and turns the box around for Hanamaki to see. "Silver or gold?"

"Gold," Hanamaki blurts out without thinking.

Matsukawa's eyes flash to Hanamaki and then back to the box.

"Good choice."

Hanamaki involuntarily lets himself get distracted by a random thing the room, as he tries not to think about the future actions.

 _You're a grown man, for God's sake, it's not like he's going to chop your ear off,_ flies through his head.

 _I'm not scared. I have respect towards it,_ he fights his inner monologue.

_Respect? No that's not how it works-_

Matsukawa starts to snap his fingers to make Hanamaki click back to the present time, and sighs as he starts to apologize for zoning out again.

"There's no need to be worried," he assures him. "You won't even feel it?"

"That's easy for you to say, you've done it a million times."

"I was shaking like crazy when I did it the first time."

"Really?"

"Yeah. It took me like thirty minutes to actually get it done."

"I hope it takes you less this time."

Hanamaki is way too indulged in the conversation to hear the soft click, and Matsukawa smirks.

"Well, if you wanted to measure the time, you should have said so sooner, because that one's already done," he comes back forward to put on the earring.

"Wait, just like that?" Hanamaki stares in disbelief and scrunches his face at the feeling of the cold metal.

"I told you that you wouldn't even feel it," Matsukawa leans back and admires his work.

Hanamaki reaches for the hand mirror on the floor, but Matsukawa swats his hand away.

"Wait till I'm done with both," he shifts more to the right to get a better angle. "You're gonna feel this one a bit more, but not by much."

"Why?"

"It's just nervous system thingies," Matsukawa explains, and Hanamaki hisses gently as he feels the pinch followed by an odd feeling of warmth. "The more you hurt your body, the more your body is trying to stop you from continuing, and it increases the pain levels, or something like that, I'm not entirely sure."

Hanamaki finds Matsukawa's ramblings oddly calming, as he finds his voice relaxing him through the rest of the procedure.

"And, done," Matsukawa leans back and his eyes flick in between Hanamaki's ears for a few seconds, and Hanamaki swears he sees a small smile flash over his face, the image perfected by the glisten of his dark eyes under warm yet slightly dim the bathroom light.

 _This isn't normal, is it?_ he randomly thinks. _Domesticity (why do I keep using that word when I damn right know intimacy would be a better choice) like this, it isn't something common in between people who are just friends right?_

_Of course not, you damn idiot, no one does this crap._

_Does Matsukawa realize it too?_

He looks up at him, currently looking away as he discards the trash into the bin.

_Look, he's not that stupid._

_Or is he?_

Yes, dear Hanamaki, he is.

\-------------------

Days go on like the usual, Hanamaki crossing of the days until Christmas like if he were fifteen years younger, and there's no big change in anything until a Friday comes along.

The moment Matsukawa lays foot in his apartment that evening, he knows something is different.

Different for the better.

He takes off his shoes and coat as usual, and the smell of dinner travels all the way from the kitchen into his nose, and Matsukawa bathes in the domesticity.

But when he enters the kitchen, instead of a typical Friday dinner (which in their household meant either the leftovers from the week or takeout), he's met with probably the fanciest dinner he's ever eaten in the apartment.

"Celebrating something?" he asks and doesn't catch the smirk that flashed over Hanamaki's face.

"Maybe," Hanamaki teases and places down the silverware.

"Oh really?" he takes off his tie and sits down behind the bar.

"It feels so stupid, eating this fancy dinner behind a _bar_ ," Hanamaki complains.

"Oh sorry, I'll just hop into the shop and get a dining table with six chairs, just for you, my highness," Matsukawa shoots back. "Will you finally tell me why did you decide to go all out tonight? And don't tell me that you just felt like it."

"Well," Hanamaki starts and passes Matsukawa a bottle of beer. "I got a job today."

"What?"

"You heard me."

Hanamaki gives Matsukawa time to process, and when all corks finally fall into place in his head, he nearly falls off the chair as he rushes to him.

Hanamaki is almost crushed by the force Matsukawa gives into the hug, but decides to relax and enjoy the moment, as he doesn't know when again will he find himself in a similar position.

"Which job is it?" Matsukawa breaks the embrace and leans back, eyes wide with excitement.

"Look it's nothing special, just some typical office job, but it's something," Hanamaki smiles.

"I'm proud of you."

Hanamaki crashes for a moment as he tries to process the words that were just addressed to him, and who they came from, and his heart is filled with warmth like never before. 

"Let's eat," Matsukawa's voice takes him back to reality as he calls him over, and Hanamaki gets out a small nod before taking a place next to him.

The rest of the evening passes as their usual Friday, watching something from the worst movies ever made and analyzing said movie to the stupidest detail while consuming their entire supply of chips, followed by the two trying to locate the bedroom in a slightly tipsy state with Matsukawa having to physically stop Hanamaki from using the bar counter as a bed.

"Not comfortable," he slurred as he dragged him by the arm. "No pillows either."

Hanamaki nodded at the second statement, and the two dropped into a deep slumber the moment they hit the bed.

Matsukawa wakes up the next day the same way as on the usual weekend and is surprised to see that Hanamaki, who always sleeps until almost lunch, is already up.

He automatically heads into the kitchen and from all the possible things he imagined Hanamaki doing, one of the last was to find him looking through the ad section of the daily newspaper.

“What are you reading that for?” he asks. “You’ve got a job now.”

“Well yeah, and with that, I can find a place of my own.”

“You can stay here,” Matsukawa blurts out.

Hanamaki crashes.

“You don’t have to look for another place," Matsukawa tries to save the situation. "I mean unless you really want a place of your own.”

“Well now with a job, I’ll really think I’m mooching off you if I'd stay,” Hanamaki sighs.

“You’re not,” Matsukawa reassures him.

 _Jesus, what are you going on about?_ his thoughts start to attack him like bullets. _If he isn't comfortable with staying then that's none of your business. Clearly, he must have noticed as well that living like this isn't something that friends do, what kind of flatmates share a bedroom? And you've lived alone before he came along, so it's not like it's something new out of the blue..._

 _I'll miss it though,_ is all he has to say against his internal monologue. _His presence. The volume he adds to this place. The breakfasts we make together. The dinners he has ready for me. The movie nights. The way the bathroom smells like that stupid shampoo he uses, the 2 AM drives, the late-night shopping sprees, the random street shops all-round the city that only he knows, the feeling of him looking at me, the-_

Matsukawa realizes he's taking too long and quickly mumbles out an answer.

“Besides, it’s actually nice to have company. You’re an amazing help and to be honest, I wouldn’t be comfortable with just any flatmate, but you’re okay I guess.”

“You can just say you like me,” Hanamaki fake sighs.

_Not really._

“Yeah, dream on,” Matsukawa eyerolls. “Are you accepting the offer?”

“Under one condition.”

“Shoot.”

“Since I have a stable income now, you let me contribute to the bill.”

Matsukawa sighs the hardest in his entire life before he answers him.

“Whatever helps you sleep, Makki.”

\-------------------

It's less than a week till Christmas and Matsukawa notices that Hanamaki is going crazier with each and every day. The Christmas playlist is blasting more often, the amount of decorations in the apartment doubled since last week and the ginger apple scented candle is driving Matsukawa insane. The moment he realizes that Hanamaki had fallen way too far into the madness is when he comes back from work and is met with a mixed scent of ginger, orange and cinnamon as he enters opens the door. His mind immediately jumps to the conclusion that Hanamaki had broken rule number one; only one scented candle can burn at once.

As he's about to curse him out he enters the kitchen and understands the mixed scents; Hanamaki's in the kitchen, kneading a half of gingerbread dough, while the other half is baking in the oven.

"Evening," he greets him and Hanamaki responds with a nod, currently way too preoccupied with the pastries.

"Can I join?"

Hanamaki looks up and then his eyes trail over his clothes before looking back up.

"Not in your work clothes."

"It's Friday, I'm throwing them into the washing machine anyway."

"At least take off the damn tie."

Matsukawa does as asked, throwing the tie into one of the corners of the room before shuffling into the kitchen.

"Not so fast," Hanamaki stops him and shoves an apron into his hands.

"Seriously?" Matsukawa wails.

Hanamaki's glare suggests nothing but.

Matsukawa sighs and puts it on, and before he can even comprehend the situation, Hanamaki is somehow already behind him, tying the strings into a knot.

"Who's acting like a mother now?"

"Shut up," Hanamaki hisses and looks into the oven rather than at Matsukawa.

He nudges him in order to make him move and takes out the first plate of cookies, kicking Matsukawa in his shin when he leans to steal one.

"They're still flaming hot, dumbass," he places them on the marble and looks back at him. "Do you wanna cut out, or decorate?"

"Why don't we do both together?" Matsukawa proposes. "As you said, the first batch is still hot to decorate-"

Hanamaki's judging gaze steals the words out of his mouth, but his face soon softens as he hands him half of the dough.

"Please don't make it end like Christmas of 2002."

"You're a buzzkill."

"This is literally _your_ kitchen?" Hanamaki stares in confusion. "If you want it to be entirely covered in flour, have flames flying out of the oven and the dough somehow stuck to the ceiling, go for it."

"That wasn't how it went down."

"Oh yeah I forgot a detail," Hanamaki adds, holding the rolling pin like a weapon. "You pressed a cookie cutter into my hand so hard it left a snowman-shaped bruise and as revenge, I broke one of these on your head."

"I don't see a snowman-shaped cutter anywhere," Matsukawa says, digging through the pile. "Will a bell be okay?"

Hanamaki ignores his remark and starts working on his part, glancing over to Matsukawa every now and then, usually to check if he's variating between the cutters equally, but also because every time he looks, he's filled head to toe with a feeling that feels like liquid gold.

Batch two and three go by fast, and now they find themselves looking at the leftover dough, Hanamaki voting for a batch four, while Matsukawa requests a 1 v 1 creativity challenge.

"What do you even want to make out of it?" Hanamaki asks, staring at the clump of dough. "It's not like high school times where we always used to make Oikawa's face out of it, purposefully giving it our worst."

"I don't know, to be honest," Matsukawa sighs.

"Exactly," Hanamaki continues. "Batch four."

\-------------------

Hanamaki looks at his watch and understands that he has exactly five minutes before his lunch break ends. He flips out his phone with the speed of light and looks for the desired contact. Once he finds it, he dials and prays that the person on the other side answers.

"Hiro-kun, hi!" he's greeted by the other side, and immediately sighs in relief.

"Hi, Isami-san, do you have a minute?"

"Of course, what is it?"

"What do I get Issei for Christmas?"

A silence comes over as Isami tries as hard as possible to not fall out of composure on the other side of the line and finally manages to get out and answer.

"Hm, let me think for a second."

Isami thinks about this harder than she's ever thought about anything in her life.

_It can't be too obvious, but it can't be just anything. Can't be something lovers typically give to each other, but had to represent that he cares, something personal. Something that seems like a small detail yet is a grand gesture. No, no, no, maybe, no, no... bingo._

"Hiro-kun, remember the really antique ornate sword he got for his eighteenth birthday?"

Hanamaki is scared of the direction where this conversation is going but decides to follow up.

"Well, there's actually two of them in the set," Isami continues. "We planned to get him the whole thing, but they're sold separately, and the second one wasn't available at that time. Though I'm pretty sure the last time I went around this antiquity shop, I saw it there. I'll send you the address."

Hanamaki at first isn't sold by the idea of gifting Matsukawa a sword, but something in the way Isami explained it to him tells him that it might just be the thing.

"Thank you, Isami-san."

"Anything for you, Hiro-kun."

\-------------------

"This feels nice," Matsukawa takes a sip out of his tea and continues to stare outside, at the snow-covered city.

"Yeah, it is," Hanamaki agrees from the kitchen, pouring himself a second cup of said tea, but leaving a little bit for Matsukawa.

"It's a change," Matsukawa continues.

"Yeah," echoes from the kitchen.

 _God, it's that awkward tension again,_ both of them think. _I better shut up before I say something that's going to make this situation even worse._

"How's the cake coming through?" Matsukawa suddenly drifts the topic to food.

"Almost done. How's the main course.?"

"Their location says they're on the opposite street-" Matsukawa answers and glances down the street through the window, trying to spot the car with their takeout. "So almost done as well."

The alarm for the cake goes off, and at the same time, Matsukawa's phone vibrates, indicating that their dinner is almost there. In order to not keep the poor delivery guy waiting in the December cold, he decides to head down a bit earlier, at the same time escaping the energy that erupted in the apartment few moments ago.

By the time Matsukawa returns with the takeout, the cake is already cooling on the counter and Hanamaki is sitting by the table, waiting for his return.

"Look, I'm all for traditions and noble eating, but it's KFC we're having, can we eat on the couch instead?" Matsukawa asks the moment he spots him.

"Thank god," Hanamaki exhales and immediately hops onto the couch.

The two ordered what seemed like half of the possible menu: Hot Wings Box, Crispy Wings Dip Bucket, two Toasted Twisters, and a Grander for the main course, complete with three portions of corn and a chocolate lava cake. The fact that the total sum was a three-digit number didn't matter; it was Christmas after all.

\-------------------

After what was probably their biggest dinner feast ever, the two tiptoed to the locations where they hid the gifts for one another. When they turned around each other, the differences look comical; Hanamaki stands on one side of the room holding a package bigger than himself, while Matsukawa stands on the other side with a bag so tiny it would fit in one’s palm.

"Now I feel like you've outgifted me," Matsukawa says.

"Shut up," Hanamaki replies and somehow tries to save the situation. "It's not about the gifts."

"Stop talking like our mothers," Matsukawa shakes his head and hands him the gift.

"You first," Hanamaki says as he repeats the gesture.

"No, you first," he replies almost immediately.

"Rock, paper, scissors?"

Matsukawa nods.

Hanamaki draws paper, Matsukawa rock.

"What in the actual heaven is this even?" Matsukawa asks as he sits down, the enormous package in his lap.

"You want a knife?" Hanamaki asks as Matsukawa struggles with the cardboard and tape.

"No," he hisses and practically rips half of the sealing.

 _Okay, he has been working out,_ immediately flies through his head.

Hanamaki watches as Matsukawa becomes more and more confused the closer he gets to the actual gift and when he's left with a giant mahogany box in his hands, he gives Hanamaki a _very_ confused look.

"What on Earth-"

"Open it."

Matsukawa clicks the two buttons on each side of the box, pulls the lid up and freezes.

Hanamaki smirks.

"What the actual fuck."

"Sword."

"How did you know?"

"The Grinch told me."

"Fair."

Hanamaki watches as Matsukawa takes the sword out of the box as if it were the most fragile porcelain, eyes scanning the ornate carvings and writing.  
"Oh, sorry, sword lore later, your turn now," Matsukawa quickly places the sword back as he realizes that Hanamaki is in the room as well.

Hanamaki takes the box into his hands, and something tells him that it's probably going to be a piece of jewellery (not a ring, Takahiro, stop daydreaming), but he did not actually expect Matsukawa to buy _the_ earrings.

"Now, what did you say about me outgifting you?" Hanamaki says looking down at the box.

"You literally got me like a limited-edition antique-ass sword I have been trying to get for ten years!" Matsukawa fights back. "This has definitely outgifted what I gave you."

"You mean to tell me that a rusty sword outweighs a pair of freaking diamond earrings?"

"Yes."

"I'm still shoving these down your throat."

"You're not."

Hanamaki sighs in defeat.

"You're right. I'm not."

"You still have to wait like two months or so to wear them, sadly."

"Why sadly?"

_I'd love to see how they look on you._

"You got really excited when you saw them for the first time, so it's kinda a shame that you can't wear them yet," Matsukawa says instead.

"What's the worst thing that can happen?"

"No. It hasn't even been a month!"

"Can't even try them on?"

"No."

"What do I do with them then?"

"Don't you have a jewellery box or something?" Matsukawa asks.

Hanamaki shakes his head as an answer.

"Then just keep them in the box they came in," Matsukawa suggests.

"I'll lose them," Hanamaki replies. "You know how much shit I lose and how easily."

"Put them somewhere where you'll see them," Matsukawa goes on. "That way you won't forget where you put them."

"Smart."

Matsukawa nods.

The rest of the evening is filled with pointless discussions with the occasional break for the shortcake baked earlier, and the two end up falling asleep on the floor, with a shitty rom-com in the background. Hanamaki passes out first, the exhaustion catching up with him, while Matsukawa takes longer, his usual though-induced insomnia keeping him up.

He'd fall asleep easier if he knew that he was the main character in the dreams of the man next to him.

\-------------------

"Enjoy," Matsukawa says as he stops the car in front of the Hanamaki family house. "And say hi to your family from me or I'll beat you."

"Yes, yes," Hanamaki nods. "Same applies to you."

"Ya."

"Can't wait for my sisters to interrogate me," Hanamaki sighs.

"My siblings aren't any better, and you know that."

"Look at least you have a fair battle of one on one since as far as I know, Saito _never_ joins in on Isami and you bickering."

"Tokori isn’t that terrible either."

"She's worse than Saito."

"Though none of them are worse than the two demons."

"I'd trade Reiko for Isami any day."

"There's no way that Reiko is worse than Isami," Matsukawa crosses his arms.

"Does Isami have this super-sense with which she can immediately tell what's wrong with you?" Hanamaki asks. "The _'older sisters always know'_ thing?"

Matsukawa shakes his head.

"Exactly. I win this round."

"Okay, now go already since you're making my car battery die."

"You could at least pretend you don't hate me," Hanamaki fake gasps and catches his heart. "Ciao."

"See ya," Matsukawa replies.

Hanamaki doesn't here the _'I could never hate you'_ as the car door closes.

\-------------------

The moment Takahiro walks through the door, Reiko understands that he's absolutely in love with whoever was his ride.

"Welcome home, dumbass," she greets him with a hug.

"Hi, Reiko," he hugs his older sister back and sends a wave to the rest of his family.

"Who brought you?" she immediately asks.

"Issei did," he replied without thinking.

Takahiro goes on to greet the rest of his family, and when he's busy talking about something totally unimportant with his mother, he doesn't notice Reiko whispering something to his younger sister Tokori, who then gives Reiko her typical mischievous grin.

The dinner goes on smoothly and the main topic is everyone's wellbeing, Reiko knowing her brother well enough to know to keep all her questions for later, though the more she observes him, the more questions pop into her mind.

She pierces Tokori with her gaze, enforcing her to eat faster since if she doesn't clear her plate in the next five minutes she will actually explode from the anticipation and Christmas dinner will quickly turn into a police investigation.

Tokori understands the warning and finishes her meal in a record speed when compared to her typical snail-speed eating habits.

The gift opening goes by like nothing, and Takahiro barely gets the chance to say his thanks before he's being dragged away by his two sisters.

"Reiko, I can walk on my own!" Takahiro wails as Reiko mercilessly pushes him into his old room and sits him down on the floor while Tokori locks the door. "Besides what's going on?"

"First of all," Reiko completely ignores his confusion. "What the hell is that?"

It takes Takahiro less than a second to realize that she's probably referring to his earrings.

"This?" he asks and points to his ears. "Yeah, I got my ears pierced. And?"

"Yeah, right, you, Hiro, who's always been scared of needles," Reiko disagrees.

"It's different-"

"It's really not," Tokori chimes in. "Besides, where did you have them done?"

"Uh, here in Sendai-"

"Liar," Tokori continues. "There is only _one_ piercing studio here in Sendai, and my boyfriend works there. So, I would know."

"You have a boyfriend?" Takahiro and Reiko ask in unison.

"I am twenty-one for heaven's sake I can have a-"

"Before us?!"

"What do you mean before us, Reiko, you literally dated before?" Tokori defends herself. "And you Hiro, you, you are a lost cause."

Takahiro's eyes speak question marks.

"How long have you been dragging it on?" Reiko asks.

"What are you talking about?" Takahiro asks back.

"Look, we all know that not only was Issei your ride, but we're pretty sure that he was the one who pierced your ears," Tokori starts. "But Issei has never given you a ride here? Like ever? You always took a taxi or something. From which we can conclude that there is a reason as to why he was your ride, possibly that you're living togethe-"

"Okay, you just went from a to z real quick," Takahiro crosses his arms.

Tokori extends her hand and Reiko slaps down a two-thousand yen note.

"What?" Takahiro asks.

"We made a bet if you two are living together," Tokori explains. "I won."

"How did you come to that conclusion?!"

"Because if you weren't living together, you would have denied it first thing," Reiko answers his question. "You keep forgetting that our little sister here takes psychology at her college."

"Now, Hiro," Tokori sits down next to him. "Talk."

\-------------------

For the entire evening, Issei is zoning out from reality into the depth of his mind, floating around in his thoughts. Though he manages to keep his natural demeanour, and to any person, he seems no different, he only later finds out that what Hanamaki said in the car was indeed true.

_Older sisters always know._

From the sofa, Isami watches her younger brother closely, paying close attention to every difference in his typical behaviour.

_Something is off. Very off._

As the curiosity (and worry) of what's going on her with her brother, she decides to put Itsuo to sleep earlier than usual, simply brushing any question off with 'he's just tired'. She then walks into the living room and leans against the wall, deciding to pierce Issei with her gaze until he notices. When he finally looks up from the floor, she motions her head to the side, earning a nod from Issei.

"Yes, 'Sami?" Issei asks as he follows her up to the second floor.

"I want to show you something."

 _Ah,_ Issei thinks.

 _'I want to show you something'_ was a phrase commonly used by the Matsukawa siblings if they wanted to talk to each other, without alerting the other family members.

From all the three siblings, Issei knew this the best.

"There's no one around so you can tell me whatever you want right-"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing?"

"Matsukawa Issei, you better tell me what's wrong, unless you want me to beat it out of you."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he defends himself. "Nothing's wrong. Should something be wrong?"

"So why are you acting so weird then?" Isami crosses her arms.

"What?"

"You're acting differently than you usually do," Isami explains. "You're indulged in your own thoughts way more than you usually are. So, tell me, what are you overthinking so much?"

He sighs.

"I'm in love with Hanamaki."

"Again?"

"More like still."

"Geez, you really have one hell of a love life."

"Tell me something about it."

Isami pinches the bridge of her nose, before sighing.

" _Are_ you in love with him, or do you just _think_ you might be?"

"That's what I'm trying to realize."

"What's happening?" Saito suddenly appears from the stairs.

"Your big brother is having a midlife crisis," Isami replies.

"What?"

"Hanamaki, I'm guessing?" Saito places the rhetorical question and leans against the railing.

"Did you go up here to do something or were you eavesdropping?" Issei asks.

"Both."

"You little shit-"

"That's not what's important now," Isami interrupts the bickering.

Issei sighs.

"Okay so what do I do?" he asks.

"Tell him," the two siblings answer in unison.

"Duh, but how?"

"Why are you asking me?" Isami gives him a look. "I was the one _asked_ out."

Issei turns over to his brother who gives him a sigh.

"Don't look at me," Saito objects. "I haven't even been in a proper relationship yet."

"Just take him on a dinner or something, and tell him," Isami suggests.

"Or cook for him and tell him at home," Saito adds. "You'll be more at ease in the comfort of your own home."

Issei puts his head in his hands and lets out a wail.

\-------------------

In the house next door, Takahiro is still going through a similar situation.

"So, what exactly did he say?" Reiko questions him.

"Look I don't remember exactly, but it was something along the lines of ' _you can stay at my place, after all it's really nice to have company, and even though I don't do flatmates, you're okay,'_ I believe," Hanamaki explains.

"Hiro, that's like," Reiko halts, "Super gay."

"Yeah right?" the youngest of the Hanamakis, Tokori, joins the conversation. "I wouldn't say that to my flatmate."

"Issei is a complicated character, Kori," he brushes her argument off.

"Yeah, we know," Reiko follows. "But I have never seen two best friends be so comfortable with each other like the two of you are. Even with Issei's character."

"Which, by the way, isn't that complex, it's just the fact that he treats you way better than everyone, and you view that as his real personality, tucking away the romantic context."

All 3 heads turn to the left, where their mother is standing, arms crossed.

"Now this is embarrassing," Tokori whispers.

"Don't act like I didn't know you liked him."

"Not helping the situation, mom," Reiko adds as she sees her brother turn an even brighter shade of pink.

"Look, honey, just tell him how you feel," she tells him, using that tone of voice only mothers have. "I'm sure it will all work out."

Takahiro screams internally and decides to call it a day and go to sleep early.

The first thing he does when he throws himself on his bed is pull out his phone and text Issei.

**To: mattsun**

**how's it going over there**

The response comes back almost instantly.

**From: mattsun**

**rest of the house is either drunk or asleep. hogging the fridge rn.**

**To: mattsun**

**what are u having**

**From: mattsun**

**whatever is left. got some tofu. hows it going at yours?**

_Oh, nothing much, just my entire family is pressuring me into a confession._

**To: mattsun**

**nothing much. the usual.**

**From: mattsun**

**i can feel ur boredom thru the screen.**

**To: mattsun**

**not bored, just dont wanna deal with my siblings, and its the only activity left.**

**From: mattsun**

**same here. reiko i pressume?**

**To: mattsun**

**isami i pressume?**

**From: mattsun**

**those two are devils. give a minute brb.**

Takahiro starts to count to 60 in his head but before he reaches 45 his phone starts buzzing.

One look at the screen almost makes him go into a cardiac arrest.

**mattsun**

**Incoming video call**

He leans the phone against the footboard and lies down on a pillow before answering the call, looking like a fifteen-year-old girl on the phone with a boy she thinks is way too good for her.

Well, one of those things actually applied.

"Wassup?" he greets Matsukawa in the phone.

"Fried Tofu cubes," he shakes the bag in the camera.

"Bring me some."

"Look, you're my best friend, but I don't feel like freezing my ass off for you."

"Put on a jacket."

"I'm lazy. If you want them come and get them."

"Yeah, you're not gonna let me in and I'll be the one freezing."

"Do you want me to leave a window open?"

"Yes, have your window open," Hanamaki says and ends the call.

Matsukawa didn't actually expect him to do it; who the hell would go out into a what is almost a snowstorm at almost 11 pm just for three-day-old tofu cubes?

Hanamaki Takahiro apparently.

Knowing that if he let the window open for more than 5 minutes, he'd die of hypothermia, so instead, he decided to watch thru the curtain until he didn't see the familiar hair colour flash in a street lamp across the street.

If Hanamaki really wanted, he could knock and Matsukawa would let him in through a door like a normal person, but they agreed on the window to his bedroom, and so the window to his bedroom it was. The cold was biting at his hands and he cursed himself for not taking a pair of gloves, but he had climbed up to Matsukawa's window in worse conditions than some snow.

The way up wasn't hard if you remembered it correctly; pull a trash bin to the porch and use it as a stool to get up on the ledge and from there slide towards the window and throw yourself inside.

Matsukawa watched from the open window, worry floating around in the back of his brain since it would take Hanamaki one bad step for Christmas Day to change into a trip to the emergency room. Even with Hanamaki's protest, he eventually helped him to pull himself into his room, his laughter filling the room the moment he hit the floor.

"Here, your treat," Matsukawa tossed him the remainder of the tofu packet. "You can head back now."

"Oh, hell no," Hanamaki replied, already stuffing his mouth with the cubes. "I'm staying over."

Matsukawa silently hoped for that answer.

"Look, I don't have the _heart_ to kick you out," Matsukawa says, placing his hand on his heart for emphasis.

"Are you flattering me, Lord Issei?" Hanamaki continues, dramatically tilting his head.

"It would be unruly of a gentleman to let someone wander in such weather, and at such time!"

"Well, I could manage, you know?"

"I never said you couldn't, Lord Takahiro," Matsukawa sits himself down on the edge of the bed. "I'm saying it wouldn't be appropriate for me to let such a thing happen."

Hanamaki ruins the moment when he reaches into the package for another cube, the crinkling of the package resonating in the silence like an explosion.

"Crossing that off our roleplay list," Matsukawa notes and Hanamaki almost chokes on the cube.

"Without context, _fuck,_ even with context that sounded so wrong," Hanamaki gets out in between the hits to his chest that prevent the tofu from getting stuck.

"Tell me the last time we had a conversation without one of us saying something that could have multiple meanings?" Matsukawa asks and Hanamaki is about to answer when Matsukawa bans his answer.

"Except for our therapy sessions."

Hanamaki lets out a tsk in response and sighs at the empty packet.

"Do you have any more?" he waves the packet in the air.

"Nope. That was the last one."

Hanamaki pouts for a second before throwing the packet into the direction of the trash can (absolutely forgetting that plastic packets don't fly like bottles) and missing, before tilting his head to look at Matsukawa.

"You can take off your jacket, y'know," Matsukawa says.

"Sure, you don't want more than just the jacket?"

"There we go again."

Hanamaki erupts in laughter at his own joke and Matsukawa follows right after.

A floor lower, Isami and Reiko are texting.

\-------------------

Matsukawa was nervous. He himself didn't know why.

Hanamaki noticed as well, from the way Matsukawa held the steering wheel on the way back, Hanamaki expecting the leather to crack under the pressure Matsukawa was implying on it with his grip, to the way Matsukawa struggled with the apartment keys for a good three minutes, before Hanamaki ending his torment as he unlocks the door to the apartment himself.

"Take a bath," he immediately suggests.

"What?"

"Take a bath," Hanamaki repeats. "It's what I do when I'm stressed."

"I'm not stressed," Matsukawa replies, stoic.

"Okay, then whatever you are, because you're not _you,_ and a bath can fix that," Hanamaki says as he pushes him towards the bathroom.

"Seriously?"

"Deadass."

Matsukawa finally compels and walks to the bathroom himself, still shaking his head about Hanamaki's idea.

 _A hot bath? Seriously?_ he thinks as he prepares the tub, adjusting the warmth of the water to a comfortable level. _Is this how Makki solves his problems? With scented bath bombs?_

He looks to the side at said bath bombs, his eyes trailing among the variety of colours and scents.

He then sighs and shakes his head at the question he's about to ask.

Laying in a seemingly uncomfortable position, Hanamaki switches to yet another channel, his free hand wrist-deep in crisps. The sudden sound of the bathroom door catches his attention as he stretches his head to see into the hallway.

 _Already done?_ he asks himself.

The sound of the water from the bathroom immediately sends that thought flying out of the window.

"Makki?"

"Yes?"

"Can I use one of your bath bombs?"

Hanamaki snickers at the tone in which Matsukawa asks the question.

"Sure."

"Whichever?"

"Whichever."

"Thanks."

"Sure," Hanamaki laughs to himself as he hears the door close, not understanding why he finds the concept of Matsukawa and bath bombs so funny.

\-------------------

"How do you even pronounce this?" Matsukawa asks himself as he picks up the blue-yellow bomb, the lemon and avocado smell hitting his senses before his prepared. He places it back on the shelf with a small 'shit that's strong', and moves onto the next one.

The name 'Marshmallow World' pushes that option to the back of the list.

He sighs and moves onto the following one, its name now sounding more interesting that the name of the one before.

"Intergalactic?" Matsukawa repeats the name to himself and leans in to smell it, the grapefruit-cedarwood combination instantly intriguing his senses. He gives the last option on the shelf a look, the name 'I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas' securing his decision.

He plops the dark sphere into the water, it slowly but surely gaining a purple-blue tint. The bathroom starts to smell of cedarwood, but Matsukawa doesn't notice as he's buried in his phone, looking for an adequate playlist. He gives up and puts a random playlist on shuffle, and right away skips the first three songs that come on before he connects his phone to his speaker. The mellow tune of Apocalypse by Cigarettes After Sex starts to echo throughout the room, as he closes his eyes to enjoy one of his favourite songs.

He throws his shirt off and into the laundry basket, and leans onto the sink. His reflection stares back at him, judging him, as he presses his finger onto the image in the mirror.

"Coward," he mumbles and then sighs, shaking his head at the whole thing.

Seeing the water reached an acceptable level, he takes the rest of his clothes off and sinks into the warm water, letting the bath bomb perform its magic. The next song comes on, and he lowers himself deeper into the water as he explores his mind palace. There isn't much to think about; he's in love with him, fuck, he's totally head over heels.

It's stupid, this whole feelings business, and for the same person for the past eight years? Is he insane?

The song ends and Play Date starts to play, Matsukawa scrunching his face when he recognizes the song. He doesn't listen to Melanie Martinez, there is no actual reason why any of her songs should be in any of his playlists.

Although, he does know _one_ person who listens to Melanie Martinez, and he's currently doing god-knows-what in his living room.

It's indescribable how much Matsukawa wants to take a hammer and ram out his feelings out of his head, but if eight bloody years didn't do the trick, what could possibly help?

He groans at his misery and recalls the conversation he's had with Isami, whose 'just confess' absolutely didn't help him. He wasn't angry with her or anything, it wasn't her fault she couldn't perfectly understand his situation as she had never been in his shoes.

His and Hanamaki's friendship was completely different from all the other friendship he has or has had. They weren't childhood friends like Iwaizumi and Oikawa; those two were a completely different story. They knew each other the same time they knew the other third years, but it was different, way different.

Putting aside the fact that this is the first friendship in which Matsukawa had fallen in love with the one on the other side, the two knew that they're perfect for each other. They fit together perfectly, they're like two sides of one coin, they have a certain _bond,_ and Matsukawa isn't sure if it's worth risking all that for a stupid crush.

But then, on the other hand, stupid crushes go after a month.

3 months max.

They don't stay sucked to the person for nearly a decade.

Play Date ends, and when he hears the piano of the next song start to play, he jolts up to grab his phone and check the playlist name. Even with the screen now covered in water droplets, he manages to open the app, and his prediction is confirmed.

The random playlist he actually put on shuffle was called **"issei and hiro's garbage pile"** ; it was the one he and Hanamaki made way back in high school. At the beginning, the whole thing was under two hours and filled with the songs they both enjoyed, but it quadrupled in size overnight, when Hanamaki added eight hours’ worth of love, cringy tear-jerking and full out breakdown songs, apologizing for it the next day with 'i thought i was adding them to my own playlist and I only realized after I added the last one, sorry'.

Throughout the years of high school, a new song was added on average every week, and in the end, it was a 17-hour long clump of everything; from Disney movie tracks and Acapella covers of big hits to death metal and the entire Beatles discography. Hanamaki's favourite part about that playlist was what he called "the landmine"; he added the Crazy Frog song around 20 times, causing the absolute monstrosity pop up every once in a while.

Not even graduation stopped the two from continuing the playlist, the two always letting out a smile when they saw that the other added another song.

The playlist was now at an insane number of 741 songs and lasts a good 41 hour and 37 minutes, Matsukawa suddenly has a thought of having a marathon with Hanamaki, during which they'd listen to it without a break, and probably end up in an asylum afterwards.

The song that is currently playing comes from Hanamaki's love additions; Talking to the Moon by Bruno Mars. Matsukawa snorts at the type of songs Hanamaki listened to in high school, but as he listens into the lyrics, finds the song descriptive of his current situation.

On the other side of the apartment, Hanamaki is listening to the same playlist, but unlike Matsukawa, he's currently having a solo dance party, lip-syncing to Katy Perry's Last Friday Night. As the song ends and Hanamaki expects another banger, he's disappointed to hear You've Got To Hide Your Love Away by the Beatles.

"This playlist really said 'For You Page'," he groans and drops himself into a split as he lays his head sideways to the floor. "I didn't come here to get called out by John Lennon."

He hums the song into the wooden floor and blindly searches for his phone so he can skip it.

He gives up after realizing the phone is on the couch and decides to wait for the dreadful song to end.

Back in the bathroom, Matsukawa is still thinking about his options at 110 per cent. There's only one person to talk to left, and as he's seemingly running out of options, it's better than nothing.

**To: oikawa**

**text me when ur online. i need ur help.**

He goes on to put the phone back, but before can, it buzzes in response.

**From: oikawa**

**im here what is it**

**To: oikawa**

**how do i know if i like someone**

**From: oikawa**

**please tell me its makki**

Matsukawa lets out a 'tsk' at Oikawa's deduction but decides to go with the truth.

**To: oikawa**

**bingo. now help me**

**From: oikawa**

**u like him.**

Matsukawa wants to punch him through the screen.

**To: oikawa**

**just bcs i liked him in high school, doesnt mean i still like him now**

**From: oikawa**

**you wouldnt be asking if you didnt like him**

He thinks about the answer and sighs when he realizes that for once in his life, Oikawa is actually speaking facts. He's right; if he wouldn't be crushing on him, he wouldn't ask, he wouldn't care.

Why did he even start this conversation, when he was already before certain that he likes Hamamaki?

 _Still,_ he thinks. _That's shitty advice._

**To: oikawa**

**pls dont ever become a marriage counsellor**

**From: oikawa**

**id make an amazing marriage counsellor, shut up**

Matsukawa knows as one of the best, that there's no point to fight with Oikawa about petty things like this.

**To: oikawa**

**okay, so how do i tell him**

**From: oikawa**

**ask him on a date**

_Is that literally the only option?_ he cringes internally at the thought of a boring dinner.

**To: oikawa**

**u and my sister r literally the same ppl**

**From: oikawa**

**well what else do you want to do? ps. say hi to isami-san**

**To: oikawa**

**idk. what if he rejects me**

**From: oikawa**

  1. **do you think there is a method of asking someone out in which there is no chance of rejection?**
  2. **he won't reject you. he's totally in love with you.**



**To: oikawa**

**touché. idk doe. i want to make it a little more special than just a random date.**

**From: oikawa**

**isn't his birthday coming up?**

A lightbulb lights up above Matsukawa's head and he grins at his phone like an idiot.

**To: oikawa**

**Oikawa Tōru, ur a genius.**

**From: oikawa**

**we been knew.**

Matsukawa doesn't read the last message as he scrambles out of the tub, speeding up everything by two as he can't wait to put his amazing plan into the works. He completely forgets about his hair routine, something he hasn't done ever since his sister had introduced it him, aka in a good fourteen years. He just sloppily pushes it back with a headband and doesn't even bother to put on his bathrobe or slippers as he mangles out of the bathroom.

By the sound which comes from him opening the door, Hanamaki thinks he crashed through it, and the shit-eating grin Matsukawa is wearing doesn't help the situation. But as Matsukawa walks into the kitchen, Hanamaki bursts into laughter when he notices a detail Matsukawa probably did not.

"Intergalactic?" he asks.

"How did you know?" Matsukawa almost trips over himself. "Is it the smell?"

"No," Hanamaki shakes his head. "It's the only one with glitter in it."

"What are you hinting at?"

"You look like Edward fucking Cullen."

Matsukawa instantly places his arm under the lamp and groans at the sight of golden freckles shining off of him.

Hanamaki is too busy ogling Matsukawa's arms again to notice the latter trying to start a conversation.

"Earth to Takahiro!" Matsukawa yells as the headband he shot at him hits him in the forehead.

"Uh, yeah, what?" Hanamaki looks up. "Sorry, I zoned out."

"Yeah, visibly. Toss me my headband back please."

A question mark appears above Hanamaki's head at the word headband, but he comes to the conclusion that it was probably the object that hit him in the face a few seconds ago.

He picks it up from the floor and shoots it back like a slingshot, Matsukawa catching it effortlessly. Hanamaki is again enamoured by his view, watching in slow motion as Matsukawa pushes back his hair which glistens with the same sparkle as the rest of his skin under the warm light of the dim kitchen lamp, and he falls in love even more.

"You wanted something?" he zones back in, remembering Matsukawa wanted to tell him something.

"Yeah, how do I get it off?" Matsukawa asks.

"The glitter?"

Matsukawa nods.

"You don't."

"What?"

"Mattsun, think of glitter as... me. It gets everywhere and it's almost impossible to get rid of."

"Why would you even own such a monstrosity then?"

"It was on sale when I got it."

"That doesn't- nevermind."

"Anyways, are you feeling better?"

"I never felt bad to start with."

"Shut up. You almost broke the steering wheel."

Matsukawa sighs and pours himself a cup of water.

"Yeah, okay, I feel a little bit looser, that's what you wanted to hear?"

Hanamaki nods.

Their phones suddenly buzz at the same time and before Hanamaki can read the message, Matsukawa stops him.

"Don't bother. Thousand yen that it's _the_ invite."

"Why do they even bother alerting us?" Hanamaki asks. "It's basically a tradition at this point."

The event Matsukawa and Hanamaki are currently referring to is the annual New Year’s party that the Matsukawas and Hanamakis hold together. The two haven't been even born yet when it first happened, the two families started the tradition more than thirty years ago. It's always been a typical get-together party, which usually ended in half of the people black-out drunk before eleven in the evening, something which in the case of Hanamaki Takahiro has been formed into a curse, as he always passed out shortly before the clock struck midnight and missed the fireworks. 

"Matsukawa?"

"Yes?"

"Can you make me a promise?"

"Depends on what it is I can try, yes?"

"Promise me you'll keep me away from passing out before the fireworks."

"You say that every year, Hiro."

"Yeah, but now I want you to promise me."

"Are you putting the responsibility on me?"

"Yes."

"Fine. I promise you that this year, you won't miss the fireworks."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a/n
> 
> \- matsuhana christmas... head in hands  
> \- they're literally so stupid i cannot with them... development coming soon  
> \- fridays are statistically the best days for job interviews  
> \- yes matsukawa has no dining table. bar counter only. he thinks it's a waste of space  
> \- for the full experience, i actually decided to create an actual "issei an hiro's garbage dump" playlist, and you can find it [here](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2IF8hdYf8QNlZjnDC1ilQe?si=yn4ZdUqPTjqd6_a83Mf19w) . listen with caution as there actually is death metal and axel frog in it. it shall be updated as the fic goes on.

**Author's Note:**

> a/n
> 
> \- there's nothing weird about two bros living in one apartment, cooking together, going out together, sleeping in the same bed... right?  
> \- hanamaki does take that shower at some point and comes out smelling like a candle shop.  
> \- hanamaki stop staring. it's rude.  
> \- matsukawa kinda knows hanamaki is checking him out, but he doesn't think much of it  
> \- matsukawa doesn't actually use 3 in 1. he has a very thorough hair routine.  
> \- this chapter is set in late november
> 
> as always you can find me at [rintaed](https://twitter.com/rintaed)


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